Why did mercenaries become illegal nowadays?

>>1666370
Assholes during the 30 Years War.
Europeans started founding centralized, standing armies.
Nationalism looked down on foreign soldiers.

>>1666370
nations began to own them.

>>1666370
They're not, Blackwater-type organizations exist and operate all around the world.

>>1666370
No, hiring and using mercs are not illegal unless you're one of these countries.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Mercenary_Convention#Signatories_and_parties
The real fuck-offer for mercenaries nowadays - besides powerful 1st world/2nd world armies - is this: the Geneva Conventions agrees you're an "illegal combatant" ergo have no protection for your rights at all under any law.

That means if you get captured as a mercenary, you can be tortured, abused, and killed summarily and no crime will be committed. At all.

Forget about being prosecuted, the law literally abandons you.

>>1666370
Too /fa/.
/thread

30 years of war will do that

>>1666400
>Blackwater-type organizations exist and operate all around the world.
Glorified mall-cops hyped up by media/tinfoils as SEKRIT PRIVATE ARMIES.

The only true mercenary unit among all of them was Executive Outcomes and its activities in Africa ruined the company.

>>1666370

They're not, do your research.

Only the ones that the west frames as 'le bad guys'

are frowned upon

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>>1666400
Private Security Organizations are not mercenaries. They are security guards for areas that are pretty dangerous.

When they get hired by a Military, they are called Private Military Contractors. But that shit covers anything from Base security to Base chow delivery. They still do security, but they cannot participate in military operations and offensives save for their immediate guarded asset being attacked, like what happened in Iraq almost a decade ago.

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>>1666401
does that mean that if i was a modern mercenary (because as much as I hear its 'bad' the money still seems pretty good for people to do it after being in a proffesional military) doesnt have any rights on the battlefield, you dont really need to follow legal procedures on the battlefield?

If thats the case, would 1st world nations hire mercenaries to commit acts that if there legitamate armed forces did would be considered a war crime and punishable for officers ect?

Any good examples of this if thats correct?

Sounds like an excellent loophole.

>>1666426
That is essentially a mercenary though.

Also people literally hire mercs still, they are used all over the world in combat

>>1666427
Nope. The government in charge would be accused of the crime. The mercenary is a criminal anyway so whatever happens, he's still fucked.

That is also a fuck-offer of mercenaries: you know you have no rights, your enemy knows you have no rights, worst of all your EMPLOYERS know you have no rights. Expect to do shitty jobs like minefield clearance or spearheading attacks in bad plans since that is what usually third world governments subject mercenaries to.

Which is why only really crazy people or third world cunts ever go mercenary.

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>>1666370
The UN has tried really really hard to make war illegal

>>1666457
Except it isn't. You generally hire real mercenaries to beef up your fighting force and include them in all your military operations.

PSCs are just given a contract, an ROE, and told to be as gloriously mall cop as they can be.

Nobody used real mercenaries for rear echelon shit.

>>1666426
That's mainly for tactical reasons now. The reality is that PMCs aren't up to snuff compared to a modern army.

>>1666461

Any wannabe merc should just join the french foreign legion then?

>>1666498
Yes. But joining the French Foreign Legion isn't mercenarial at all since your unit is part of a formal military formation and they make you french citizen.

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>>1666461

well i figured thats the case but couldnt you, theoreticlly, have a confidetial word with one of your officers in question saying that, should the media/humanitarian watchdogs gain substatial evidance of mercinaries being used in the field, doing dirty work, you sever all acknowledgement of the incident and then only a few of you would go to jail? maybe have your officer be your 'shadow hand' in the war that, should it be bought to light, say he was acting on his own violation without outside influence, like he'd gone rouge of something in his methods.

Or would your country still be called on to be punished by proxy? It would only be humanitarians and the UN moaning after the damage is done as usual so why couldnt a goverment get away with it?

Oh and before you say your villanious officer might turn on you and use your conversation as levradge later, in this scenario you've sweetend him up with offshore funds when released/scared him enough that you'll assinate him should he blab/ he's actually loyal to the cause (bit 'out there' I know!)

Because the government hates competition

Mercs have to provide all their own gear, and nothing they can lay hands on matches what national armies are equipped with. If there was a mercenary group out there with the firepower to contribute meaningfully to a modern army vis-a-vis America, Russia, France, etc, it'd scare the shit out of the UN, and the Security Council would not rest until it was destroyed.

>>1666408
>Glorified mall cops

I wish. I tried getting recruited by a PMC and so far I failed and fuckers can pull in some heavy money (like 30k per month).

>>1666522
>they make you french citizen
They do not. You can become a French citizen if you serve in the FFL long enough, but you do not automatically become a French citizen. That shit takes decades as well.

They're called foreign legions now.

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this is now a landsknecht thread.
SWISS GET OUT

mercenaries are "illegal" until a state hires them

>>1666809
Aren't modern mercs like ex special forces? All they need is a metal plate in their chest and a rifle

Those guys look like a bunch of faggots.

>>1666857
Everyone in the early modern period dressed like a monumental homo, but for some reason they were the most bloodthirsty, savage and fanatically religious fucks in European history (yes, worse than WW2).

>>1666490
Don't PMCs pay better and have higher standards than the army?

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Because Executive Outcomes.

>>1666869
Well the style of dress told of wealth and glory so everybody wanted it. The most disgusting colours and shit were popular as long as it was exotic and expensive.

>>1666809
>Mercs have to provide all their own gear
That's actually not the case, in the civil war of Sierre Leone they got to borrow heavy equipment from the governments that contracted them.

>>1666457
no it isn't. mercenary does warring, not bodyguard or training sand people how to point kalashnikov to right direction.

>>1666370
The thing with mercenaries is that while they can't compare to a modern military, they can absolutely annihilate a disorganised African one. I read about an Executive Outcomes thing a while ago where they took a few hundred men and an attack chopper and cleared a very large region of rebel forces with no losses. They essentially just sent out a squad to scout around for rebel bases, then called in the chopper to cause chaos and destroy any serious defenses, then moved the squad in to mop up the survivors.

>>1666930
Are you talking about the conflict in Sierra Leone?
They also hired local trackers as soldiers, who did quite well against the rebels due to their profession.
borrowed
Managed to clear the nation's mines and kill hundreds of rebel soldiers and only have a few wounded and two dead of the allied trackers.
They used other other things than choppers though, so maybe not the same thing.

http://www.soldiers-of-misfortune.com/history/eo-sierra-leone.htm

>>1666498
You're not really a mercenary. You just become a very expendable, well trained part of the French Army.
>>1666819
That's not true. You usually will become a citizen within or right after your first contract which is 5 years. It's not automatic but unless you're a fuckup it's almost guaranteed.

>>1666819
It doesn't take decades, you just have to complete your contract. It's common to get it before you even finish your service, if they think you're trustworthy. As long as you don't fuck up badly, it's guaranteed.

>>1666370
Because only third world shitholes can actually find uses for them, and nobody wants africans to employ mercs go full genocyde on each other.

>>1666427
Just join the French Foreign Legion if your that desperate

>>1666408
You know there's a big merc market in South America, and Africa, not to mention all the Merv's fighting in syria

>>1667858
The FFL is for people desperate, but not for people wanting to make a lot of money. You're probably going to make far less money than a enlisted troop in any first world military.

>>1668824
Syria. Right.
>Join fighting in Syria.
>Die because the Arab cunts guarding your flank ran away at the first attack.

>>1666401

No. Just no.

Find the section in the Hague or Geneva Conventions that reads "this does not apply if the other guy is not a signatory of this agreement".