I do not want to lead an army of mercenaries.
A man who fights for coin is loyal only to his purse.
When men hire themselves out to shoot other men to order, asking nothing about the justice of their cause, I don’t care if they are shot themselves.
When rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will
Commerce has changed the ethics of citizenship and the incentives for national service. America now buys private contractors - we used to call them mercenaries - to do the country's fighting.
Every individual who has worked for Blackwater in Iraq has previously served in the U.S. military or as a police officer. Many were highly decorated. And from the beginning, these individuals have been bound by detailed contracts that ensure intensive government direction and control.
The people we helped in the field, they know what the legacy is. The 40% or so of Americans that really can't stand the name of Blackwater, that's fine, I'll never really win them over anyway. And I really don't care.
Once Africans realise we can just fight and get paid for it, we can do that and still provide for ourselves and our families and countries? We're going to flood the market.
These, in the day when heaven was falling, The hour when earth's foundations fled, Followed their mercenary calling And took their wages and are dead. The British regulars who made the retreat from Mons, beginning August 24, 1914.
If I was a political mercenary, I would be using my talents in another line of work.
I was a hired gun, more or less.
I'm a mercenary. That's what people hire me for, and I don't apologize for it.
Privateers, military contractors - these aren't pirates. They have bosses. Real pirates are sellswords on missions of their own making.
