# Legally could some billonaire hire a bunch of mercenaries to help out in Ukraine?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legally-could-some-billonaire-hire-a-bunch-of-mercenaries-to-help-out-in-ukraine/960443>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Tags:** ukraine-invasion\
**Created:** [March 4, 2022, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legally-could-some-billonaire-hire-a-bunch-of-mercenaries-to-help-out-in-ukraine/960443 "2022-03-04T06:07:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legally-could-some-billonaire-hire-a-bunch-of-mercenaries-to-help-out-in-ukraine/960443/21 "2022-03-12T20:04:51Z")

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Poutine is a war criminal so how the rest of the world responds is likely going to be “in kind”.

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**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legally-could-some-billonaire-hire-a-bunch-of-mercenaries-to-help-out-in-ukraine/960443/22 "2022-03-12T20:14:00Z")

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While your point has some merit, there is a difference: most of the IB were not professional soldiers (by which I mean had a “career” in regular or mercenary armies) or “security” people before or after Spain. They left civilian life to fight fascism, not just for a paycheque. As Renault remarked to Rick, “the winning side would have paid you much more.”

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**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legally-could-some-billonaire-hire-a-bunch-of-mercenaries-to-help-out-in-ukraine/960443/23 "2022-03-12T22:41:59Z")

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Civilian life was the Great Depression.

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**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/legally-could-some-billonaire-hire-a-bunch-of-mercenaries-to-help-out-in-ukraine/960443/24 "2022-03-12T22:50:33Z")

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H. Ross Perot helped get EDS employees out of Iran.

> **[An Iran Rescue That Worked](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1980/06/01/an-iran-rescue-that-worked/493d046d-72e1-4f2f-961c-c18af804ec50/)**

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