Yet another mercenary problem

[nolongerhome]

Australian facing execution in Kabul - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Australian facing execution in Kabul

The Federal Government has confirmed an Australian man has been sentenced to death after being found guilty of murder in Afghanistan. Thirty-eight-year-old former soldier Robert William Langdon, from South Australia, was originally found guilty in October last year. The verdict was upheld by the Afghan Appeals Court last week.
The Australian newspaper reports that Langdon was found guilty of murdering an Afghan security guard and trying to blame the killing on the Taliban.
Langdon was arrested in May 2009 for fatally shooting the guard, a colleague of his named Karim, four times in the head and body.
Langdon was employed by US-based contractor Four Horsemen International as a security contractor at the time.
Langdon told a Kabul court he shot at Karim in self-defence during an argument he had with him while en route to assist a supply convoy which was under attack by insurgents.
Langdon said the heated argument saw Karim reach for his pistol.
"He reached across, and I am ex-military, so it was like bang-bang-bang. I didn't have time to think," he is quoted as saying in The Australian.
"We had just been hit [attacked by the Taliban], we didn't know what was happening, and everyone was antsy.
"I was, too. Karim probably was, too."
After Karim was shot, Langdon told his assigned unit to continue to their destination. The newspaper says he returned to Kabul, withdrew $US10,000 from his local bank account and purchased a ticket to Dubai.
He was arrested at the airport as he tried to board the flight.
Four Horsemen International specialises in hiring former special forces soldiers from around the world for guard duties in Afghanistan.

This story has started appearing on Australian news services this morning.

Afghanistan and Iraq have seen the resurgence of something I think most people thought was a thing of the past (at least when Western governments were involved) - private contracts for organisations engaged in what are fundamentally military operations, that is mercenaries.

It seems like there is a never ending stream of these kinds of stories, mainly with Blackwater up this point, which really ought to make us all question if we want this trend to outsource military operations to continue - in my opinion it sets a dangerous precedent whereby government are able to shift responsibility for violent actions out of the public sphere, which in turn renders those actions and the people engaged in them removed from public oversight and control.

I also have to point to the name of the organisation involved in this particular incident - Four Horseman!

I'm trying to think of a more innapropriate name and I'm struggling to do so...