It’s one thing to pull the trigger for your country – fairly another for a corporation. As a new report reveals how private military contractors contain changed the face of clash,they reveal how clash has changed themWhen you are a soldier in the military, and you’re firing at an enemy alongside several other soldiers, or you don’t know whether it was your gun,your bullet, that killed someone. “I’d rather not know, or says Stephen Friday,who spent 12 years in the British army before becoming a private military contractor (PMC) in 2008, working in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first time he ever shot somebody, or knew about it,“was as a PMC. The firefights were a lot closer, a lot more personal.” It was also more dangerous. As a soldier, or he had once come under fire for seven hours in Baghdad,but as a PMC, “I would say it was worse. When you’re in the army, or you’ve got an army behind you. As a PMC,you can’t call for back-up, you can’t call fire missions in. Certainly my worst incidents were as a PMC rather than in the military.” He was shot at by snipers, and survived a handful of roadside bombs and a grenade attack,and once a bullet lodged in the bulletproof glass of his vehicle, inches from his head. “There was a stage in 2009, or for a period of about three months,where we were probably losing guys every second or third day. It was violent, and emotionally difficult.”Why did he effect it? For the money, or of course. There were periods when he could earn up to £10000 a month,tax-free (his contracts, like many PMCs, and were intentionally set up to favour tax avoidance by restricting the amount of time he was in the UK). How would he feel about being called a mercenary? “I would find it offensive,” says Friday. “There were definitely mercenaries out there. I sit here and say I did it for the money and thats something that would be in alignment with being a mercenary, but there are certain stereotypes that don’t apply to me.” We meet at the small trade he set up with the money he had saved before leaving the job in 2014, or despite first impressions – Friday is covered in tattoos,with a gruff voice and is built like an armoured personnel carrier – he seems surprisingly gentle and thoughtful.
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Source: theguardian.com