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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Arinday: Of mercenaries and assassins
By G.H. Arinday, Jr.
Sunfare
IN THE conduct of war or revolution, the common denominator is how to vanquish the enemy. But there are unconventional strategies, which undo the tactics usually taught in military schools which makes the sub-strategy of hiring mercenaries or the training of assassins.
The difference of opinions between Senators Aquilino Pimentel and Juan Ponce Enrile with the latter claiming that there is no law prohibiting Filipinos from being hired as mercenaries by private entities for protective measures was the pie for the week.
Methinks the argument is non sequitur. To be mercenary or an assassin is an individual choice. The promise of rich rewards is the dominant factor.
In the light of changing circumstance in any kind of war, guerilla or conventional type the participation of mercenaries has become insidious essentials in achieving the demolition of the enemy's lair or the decapitation of the leaders.
Mercenaries are individuals with hearts of steel and the will to accomplish the mission given them are beyond doubt.
The Oriental sense of fatalism is premised that wherever and whatever one does if it is time to go no divine intervention can stop it. This is a concept o fate embedded in the minds seduced by the romanticism of fatalism.
If there are Pinoy mercenaries in war-torn Iraq or elsewhere it is the lure of adventure with huge booty to gain. Even in the war against continental drug-trafficking, mercenaries are utilized instead of the conventional punitive police action that can easily be detected by the target enemy.
A mercenary has the power and instinct of a chameleon, and just like an assassin, he is adept or masterful of disguises. The Boston Tea Party, for instance, was not a tea party but the successful uprising of the colonists disguised as Indians who boarded British ships in the harbor and "dumped tea overboard" sometime in 1773, three years after the Boston massacre took place where several civilians were killed by the British troops.
Mercenariness, sordid though, defies psychological standards save for the empirical intent to profit at the expense of one's life. There are mercenary groups composed of war veterans who advertise their services and no law can prevent them.
But what makes the mind of a mercenary or assassin profoundly created to commit plunder and killing is almost similar to a robotic warrior.
Unlike the suicide bombers with mindless fanaticism, the mercenaries and assassins are intellectually equipped to confront the dangers and its dire consequences.
Para-military or militia could hardly qualify in the mercenary-led wars or strategic missions to disable the enemy. Guts alone would not suffice but more than average intellect is a must requirement to be a hired warrior.
Stealth, strategy and agility consist the military laboratories of the mercenary or assassin. Added to these conventionalities required of them are flexibility and quick shifting of strategy and tactics if their presence is felt by the opposite camp.
Passiveness and inflexibility are two negative factors that these hired soldiers of fortune must absolutely avoid, which Sun Tzu posits in his book, "The Art of War", as constant reminder.
Unknown to many, even during the Vietnam War, there were mercenary pilots who were once members of our own air force. It is not therefore surprising if many of our compatriots are hired as "security personnel" by multinational companies (MNCs) with the acquiescence of the United States Army Command in the Middle East.
On both sides of the fence, there are Filipino mercenaries. How would we call the Muslim jihads with the Talibans in Afghanistan and other Muslim territories? They are the men and women who compose the core of the terror organizations in Southeast Asia, Rajah Soliman Islamic force composed of the "Balik-Islam" movement, the Jema'ah Islamiya and the Abu Sayyaf (meaning the "bearer of sword").
Indeed it is a kind of "globalization" in the field of "killing human machines".
Well, at any rate, it is how the world spins today.
(June 28, 2006 issue)
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