seanmcfate

Only a little.

The US had intel that an extremist Hutu group hiding in the Congo called the FNL were planning to assassinate the President of Burundi in 1994. If they did this, it would cause a chain of reprisal killings - Tutsi killing hutus and hutus then killing tutsi - that would rekindle the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The US sent us in to prevent all this from happening, with out the governments of Burundi, Rwanda, DRC etc knowing. Only about 5 people knew in Burundi our mission, including the President and General in charge of their military.

We succeeded. I am sorry that I can't go into the operational details. That's why I am writing fiction now. Stuff you see in my book DEEP BLACK is more non-fiction than fiction.

Another great question, thanks! Political Science and academics in general don't know much because this industry is so opaque. You have to be on the inside to understand it, yet not succumb to it, or get blackmailed into silence.

The common misperceptions are:

1. Mercenaries are ineffective. Wrong, very wrong.

2. Mercs are illegitimate. "Legitimacy" is a big word people like to throw around with much thinking. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter that much.

3. Mercs are all evil. Some are, some are not. Same with soldiers.

4. We can use international law to curb mercenaries. Wrong again. Mercenaries will just shoot your law enforcement.

5. Mercs are peripheral security problem. Wrong. The market for force is growing and cannot be stopped. At least not if we leave it on auto-pilot, which have.

6. Lastly, mercs are not useful. This is wrong. They are like fire: power a steam engine or burn the building down. They can augment UN forces of be used as terrorists.

Stop a genocide in Africa.

Yes. That's why I turned to fiction. The Tom Locke novel series started as a memoir and my agent said: no, no, no, nooooooo! Turn it in to fiction. So I did, and Tom Locke a version of me had I stayed in the mercenary world, except he more bad ass and more damaged. That said, there are certain people who don't want me talking about this stuff. I don't give a #$&^.

I transacted arms deal in Eastern Europe to Africa. It's crazy.

First, skip the middle men and go directly to the factories in eastern europe. Have a fixer arrange this.

Work on your alcohol tolerance. Deals (or just office meetings) involve vodka or homemade Slivovitz (think turpentine meets plum favor).

Order a few crates of weapons, then load them into an AN-12. Fly across Mediterranean and over Sahara with a GPS suckered to the windshield as you drink Slivovitz with the crew while smoking on the ammo crates in the back.

Ignore the hydraulic fluid dripping from the planes crevices.

Land in the middle of a sub-Saharan monsoon at night, on a mud airstrip that has no lights. If you're drunk by now, that will help.

Get picked up by local warlord and several trucks to take you through the jungle, laced with other warlords.

Repeat.