The tail will wag the dog; look at the 17th Century. These organizations cannot and will not respect the rule of law or anything else if there is a profit on the line in the form of a large, state-provided bounty. And even if they could, the whole problem of devolved authority is what do you do if someone goes into a local, American mosque with an AR-15 and conducts his own brand of Fourth Generation Warfare. That is the meaning of much of the DNI style 4th Genreation warfare analysis: the state is disappearing and more primitive and vital connections are taking its placde.

It's a good point, Roach. Part 2 will address some of these issues.

OUTSTANDING article. The book, Contract Warriors is a great read (as mentioned in TWS article), and I highly recommend it.

I would add only one thing:
propaganda

Thomas Friedman just had an article detailing the mindset of the Middle East, and in it he talks about how if you can't make your case using a conspiracy theory, they'll never listen. I fear he's right. I think his point starts to brush on the one I'm making about how propaganda is the entire strength of a terrorist act.

If a terrorist act is waged and not followed up by propaganda...it's reported as a crime and has only the limited local effects, but if it's conducted and followed up (or even better pre-cursored by) a propaganda effort, then the political objective of the attack gets as much or more press than the attack itself, and the attack's effect is no longer local, but rather as effects as large an area as the subject of the propaganda. Without propaganda there is no purpose save to kill.

Imagine if you will...
a crude video is released on several hundred websites around the world and emailed to press organizations around the world. On the video is a (instead of a Zarqawi draped in black with a knife), a man dressed as a crusader with desert fatigues clearly visible underneath.

Crusader has on the Templar white coat with red cross, big boxy helmet, but desert camo underneath covers his arms and legs. Muslim hostage complete with beard and little beanie on his head is blindfolded, on his knees and facing down. The "knight" reads off a declaration of crusade, "We declared a crusade against the Muslim World, because the Muslim World is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are extremely unjust, hideous and criminal whether directly or through its support of terror attacks in the name of Islam. And we believe the Muslim World is directly responsible for those who were killed in New York City, Washington DC, Madrid, London, Bali, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel just to name a few." and so forth. Then he draws his sword and repeats, "Non Nobis Domine, Non nobis Sed Nomin Tuo Da gloriam" (Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory-Psalm 115). Then there's a swing, and bammo the maniquin loses its head. Hamburger flies everywhere and a pump in the torso makes blood hose. The knight is drenched. His helmet turns metallic red, and he approaches the camera. Then the camera fades to black. They publish it on the web, and.....

...what happens?

Now, the quote in question is actually one of Osama Bin Laden's with "world" replaced by "Muslim World" and so forth. As described, no one is hurt, but the effect on the Arab Street would be devastating-inflaming.

'of course, one need only drop leaflets of Mohammed cartoons to accomplish that.

My point is that the power of Hollywood or even amateur thespian productions seen on YouTube could be targeted at the Jihad, and it's not. The US govt and other Western govts have done next to nothing to win the PR war, the propaganda war, the war that conveys the political will of our nation and of civilized nations upon the will of the stateless nation of jihadis.

For an independent western group to have an effect, it needs to wage a PR war first, and be capable of a terrorist war second.

THE DEMOCRATIC TAKEOVER OF CONGRESS IS ALL PART OF THE CFR'S PLANS.

The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), America's real government, pushed as far to the right as they could. For the time being. Now they have to tweak things a little to the left for a while.

Of course, they always take two steps forward and only one step back, so dictatorship is always creeping ever closer.

If the democrats were authentic opposition, they would repeal the anti-PATRIOT Acts, they'd outlaw domestic spying and torture, and they'd bring back warranted searches and fair trials.

THEY WON’T.

Many of the newly elected democrats are members of the CFR so nothing has really changed.

The Jewish Lobby and their front organization, the CFR, are the real sources of America’s current problems. They both must be exiled from American soil.

http://shillsforthetalmudians.blogspot.com/

More truth is also available from THE REAL CONSERVATIVES at jbs.org.

BE MAN ENOUGH TO MAKE YOURSELF INFORMED.

What the hell is up with this guy? I saw this same ranting, conspiracy-mongering post up at Bill Roggio's site.

Excellent article Josh !

This article at DefenseTech:

http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003089.html

takes a darker look at contracters. It makes an interesting
counterpoint to your article.

Care to comment on it?

A very good article, but I think the worries about such organizations being hard to control (in terms of accountability) and self-interested are spot on.

I know 4GW is becoming a reality, but its welcomeness is debatable. The USA has done very well out of the strong state world.

As an aside: sn "Al Qaeda for the Good Guys." Given the season, am I the only one who was reminded by that title of Seinfeld's "A Festivus for the Rest of Us ?"