Bah! A good chunk the US military isn't composed of "nationals of a party to the conflict" - the US has a long history of recruiting Latin American gangsters into their "all-volunteer" army with the promise of American citizenship after they've served their time in Hell. Which is really convenient, because those Latin American gangsters are already familiar with the modus operandi of the US military - after all, most of them have been trained by the US military in the first place.

Blackwater is not operationally different, as far as I can tell, except that the real US soldiers complain that the Blackwater goons are sloppy and trigger-happy and that corners are cut on their equipment. Sounds a lot like your standard outsourcing: The same service, just more expensive and a of lower quality.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.