Oh, you probably would like to deploy troops to gun those ungrateful fuckers down. But your cops and soldiers may not be as eager to gun down people from their own neighborhoods and tribes as you are.
You've got a problem.
Don't worry. Erik Prince has your back. He's already formed a battalion of gun thugs for the United Arab Emirates.
Given the arrogance and trigger-happy bloodthirstiness shown by Blackwater's mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, the UAE is playing with fire by hiring Prince to set up and run a battalion of goons.
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And let us not forget Eric the Price. Abu Dhabi is not very big. With the only capable armed force, who could stop him from moving into the palace and taking over?
Yeah, poor them.
My guess is that he's just regrouping for the next attack here.
Someone's got to contain those upcoming pro-Wikileak demonstrations.
UAE has learned the lesson of Libya -- that mercenaries can handle rebellions, as long as the rebels get no outside support. If not for air support from NATO, Ghadaffi's mercenaries would slaughter the Libyan rebels until nothing's left but sullen women and children in the ruins of rebel cities.
Somehow I doubt NATO will come to the aid of UAE rebels, given that UAE is supposedly a NATO "ally"...
- Badtux the Realpolitik Penguin
BadTux, it's no different from most other rebellions. If it wasn't for French logistical and military support, we would have read about the hanging of George Washington for treason.
I always snicker when people talk about Cornwallis surrendering to George Washington at Yorktown. The forces at Yorktown were pretty much evenly split between Americans and French (with the exception of militia, who were worthless in battle and were used merely as trench diggers), and if not for Spanish silver the American forces would have never left Philadelphia to march to Yorktown because they staged a strike and refused to leave until they got a month's pay. Washington was forced to give the French equal standing at the surrender talks because otherwise the surrender could have fallen through.
Of course, Cornwallis's surrender was of less than 1/10th of the British forces in the Americas, the real reason the British left was because the English crown was bankrupt and could no longer afford to pay their army, much less recruit replacements for the surrendered soldiers. Hmm, same reason the U.S. is going to exit Iraq and Afghanistan, now that I think about it... empire is expensive, and attempting to do empire on the cheap simply doesn't work.
- Badtux the History Penguin
um. Machiavelli made the definitive comment on mercenaries. It goes like this:
Don't use mercenaries. If they are lousy, they will lose your country for you. If they are good, they will take it away from you. Don't use mercenaries.
Dean's Corollary: Out-sourcing, off-shoring, consultants and vendors are the same as mercenaries.
Machiavelli was not operating in the modern area of trans-national corporations, Stew. Prince is not going to become prince of Abu Dhabi because he wants business from other dictators, which isn't going to happen if he takes over Abu Dhabi. He wants a roving band of mercenaries that can be leased out to whatever dictator is experiencing democracy problems, which taking over Abu Dhabi would sorta interfere with.
- Badtux the Practical Penguin
I agree with BadTux, Prince isn't about to take over Abu Dhabi. It's his safe haven, a place where he doesn't have to worry about feeling the cold embrace of handcuffs, the shame of being perp-walked or to spend his days in depositions or civil trials. The very last thing he wants to do is give them a reason to kick him out of the country.
In short, Prince led to Abu Dhabi for the same reason that Halliburton did.
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