1. I hadn't heard that the US uses mercenaries until recently. The biggest contractor is Xe, or Blackwater.

In 2006, Blackwater won the remunerative contract to protect diplomats for the U.S. embassy in Iraq, the largest American embassy in the world. It is estimated by the Pentagon and company representatives that there are 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, and some estimates are as high as 100,000, though no official figures exist. Of the State Department's dependence on private contractors like Blackwater for security purposes, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the U.S. Senate: "There is simply no way at all that the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security could ever have enough full-time personnel to staff the security function in Iraq. There is no alternative except through contracts."

They seem to be quite brutal and perhaps linked with the Christian right.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_Mercenaries

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