I wonder what would have Senator John McCain thought about this program? Miss him.
There are always lessons in history, even accounting for the differences between an agrarian and digital society. Private militaries have proven to be rather fickle when it comes to rights v. might.
The fall of the former and rise of the latter seems to be the issue being raised, so either equally applies.
These mercenaries are closer to Crassus hiring legions to fight a foreign war moreso than Caesar or Sulla marching on Rome. American firepower is predominantly state owned and loyal to its civilian leadership. These mercenaries are a liability because they make America look bad, not because they pose even an intermediate threat to American military power.
A good look into this further is Mike Duncan's The Storm before the Storm that leads into the Sulla era: https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Before-Beginning-Roman-Republic...
Duncan's The History of Rome podcast is very good overall and very much worth a listen.
>McCain was considered a great friend of Saudi Arabia. >He endorsed arms sales to the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen.
Only when Trump became President did he regain his moral compass...
>In June 2017, McCain campaigned to kill Congress’s “Stop Arming Terrorists Act”, aimed at banning Trump’s $510 million sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Just kidding.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/john-mccai...