The AP reports that Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater US, is involved in training 2,000 Somali recruits to fight pirates who operate on the African coast. The financing for this venture “is being moved through a web of international companies, the addresses of which didn't always check out when the AP sought to verify them.”
I’d hoped that the US government would have followed Congressman Ron Paul’s suggestion and used its constitutional authority to fund such operations. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution authorizes Congress to punish piracy and felonies committed on the high seas. The next clause allows Congress to grant letters of marque and reprisal, to address the special situation in which American ships, property, and interests are menaced, but no other government is involved.
War is not declared. Money for rewards is passed like an ordinary spending bill. Privateers using their own arms and wits are authorized to make money by taking the property of an offending foreigner. A sharply defined goal can be set and only success rewarded. The cost of using mercenaries is minimal, and America’s reputation and diplomatic interests are not on the line. No US serviceman will die.
In Somalia, Prince and his roughnecks can make a profit and pay market compensation to mercenaries who might lose lives or be injured while carrying out their assignments. America can plausibly deny responsibility for the sometimes distasteful aspects of war.
In 2001 Paul suggested that Letters of Marque and Reprisal be issued to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, who was hiding in ungovernable areas of Afghanistan. A force of irregulars, highly motivated by a generous bounty, would have neutralized bin Laden if anyone could have. Mercenaries would not have been distracted by the mirage of bringing “democracy and a strong central government” to the proud and independent anarchists farming that expanse of gravel.
But I expect too much; our Constitution languishes on life support in Washington. War is the health of the state.
