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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 3252643" data-attributes="member: 4937">Well, sorta.  There are similarities and certainly in many cases the training is there, but PSC's don't meet the legal definition of mercenary.  I think that PSC's may go that direction as 1st world nations find it increasingly hard to keep thier top military personnel on the pay role directly given the lucrative salaries offered by private industries, but at present PSC's are just glorified body gaurds, advisors, and security gaurds.  Other than the firepower they carry, they are little different conceptually from the security people you find at the mall.  Last I heard, 'Executive Outcomes' and most of the similar true mercenary companies that were springing up in the late '80's and early '90's were defunct.  I'm not even sure how many of the Soviet advisors turned independent contractors planted around the world are still in business.  'Executive Outcomes' and the ex-soviet mercenary companies Aloïsius mentioned are most certainly not 'Private Security Contractors'.  The technical term for what they provide is 'Private Military Contractor'.  I personally think that the difference between a PSC and a PMC is alot greater than what some observers claim.  I also think that alot of the so called 'PMC's are really just reinvented camp followers and even less like mercenaries than PSC's.  Lately, it seems like some people want to describe every private company that provides a service to the military as a PMC, even if all they doing is providing a laundry service.  It's annoying.  The problem with that definition, besides the fact that it does more to obfuscate the truth than reveal it, is that by that definition Burger King is a PMC.  I would think that there is clearly a big difference between the service Burger King provides, and the service provided by something like 'Executive Outcomes'.When PSC's start going around in AFV's and planning and executing offensive operations, then sure, they are mercenaries.  But providing VIP security is a long long way from that.</blockquote>

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