Lets say tomorrow I win the lotto… I get a check in just a few weeks for 30 million dollars.
what’s to stop me from creating a mercenary force and taking over a country, other than US involvement?
Say I and my band of a couple thousand mercs carve a piece of Somalia off and claim it as my own. What’s to stop me?
Tristan, President for Life of Tristania, the biggest little despotism in the world!
Not much, other than people with guns and maybe a trade embargo or fifty. There are warlords in lots of countries.
One thing to consider, of course, is the end result. It amazes me that some folks go to a lot of expense and risk to take over some God-forsaken dungpile, rife with starvation and disease. Where’s the profit in that?
Wow, I didn’t know the New Jersey gubernatorial race was so hotly contested…
ahem
Well, to some people, it is home, and profit isn’t as important as, say, power, or a goal of political, religious, or cultural significance. Life turns out to be quite relative.
Well, setting aside all legal, political, and moral concerns for a moment (they were more trouble than they were worth, anyway), how far does $30 million go with mercenaries, these days? I have no idea how you’d even check. And how does a newly wealthy person even FIND mercenaries in the first place? Just walk into a seedy bar someplace and say "Hey, any soldiers of fo–
-Sorry for the cut-off, but within a minute or so of searching, I actually found the web site for a mercenary company, Sandline International. Well I’ll be darned. I was almost SURE a seedy bar would have entered into mercenary-hiring at some point. Well, live and learn. :o
:eek:
Of course, I didn’t e-mail the PR guy and ask “Who can I conquer for $30 mil?” it’s YOUR question, after all. 
Ranchoth
Well, the $30 million was more of a vauge figure pulled from my nether regions. I am well aware that proper conquering would take more money than that…
Of course, then I go looking for sponsership.
“Hello, Mr. Ford. I’m looking for funding to sponser my campaign. If you give me XXX money, I will set aside a plot of land for a factory, and all government auto’s will be Fords.”
Personally, I’ve always liked the idea of taking a shithold, and slowly building a stable nation. I would be the sole power-broker, but I would be trying to build a stable infrastructure and economy, not to mention a non-political military.
Well, you could consider a bit of a practice run here …
Wow. I just went though the website for Sandline.
Wow.
Ice Wolf - already done. I’m Waldovia… but I dislike the game in some respects, as I feel it is too black or white. I’m all “Iron Fist” type gov’t but I never put anything in place to reduce personal freedoms.
Fun game though!
Heh. Sorry, mate, I should’ve guessed … 
Seriously… I have my military forces in place in say… Somalia. I hate using Somalia so much, but it’s one of the only places I can think of that have a total lack of government (for all practical purposes).
I show up, kick some ass and take some names.
What will the UN do? What would the US do? The UK?
I was just thinking – if you invaded and took over a country, and put a crimp in the profits of one of those faceless multi-national companies who are already rumoured to use mercenaries for their ends – I’d say the international community would be the least of your worries.
Aside from that, I’d say there’d just be your standard protest, expressions of dismay, that kind of thing. Unless one of the neighbouring territories decided to take advantage and send in their brigades.
Sorry, all rather IMHO, really.
Depends entirely on your politics.
If you are Western-friendly and create a democratic government, they’ll give you money, and eventually force you to let them use your country as a military base to attack a neighboring country, resulting in a 70 year long war after they leave.
If you lay low, they’ll ignore you, since 99% of them won’t be able to find you on a map.
If you oppose Capitalism/Democracy/american football/apple pie, they’ll throw out a embargo or two.
If you say “Burn in hell, America,” they will embargo everything except for cruise missiles and/or laser guided bombs, give someone who doesn’t like you money, and let them kill you.
The UN would proceed to whine a little about it, then say that tobacco kills people and call it a day.
Amnesty International would condemn both you and America in a press release, then ask for donations.
FARK would have a 687 post flamewar (ending with someone condemning Christianity as a whole for some reason) about your country dying, then everyone would get distracted by a boobies post and a photoshop of a guy in a pickle suit.
Someone would make a movie about it in 10 years that people thought was cool, but thought was a new Tom Clancy story.
Zagadka- I am dead. You have pwned me with teh funney.
I mean, right now I’ve got a lotto ticket, and I may have won. I’ve always liked the thought of ruling a country with my own unique brand of capitalist/republican thoughts.
Elections for parliment, elections for whatever you want, but my role is absolute, and hereditary.
I would set up the equivalent of a constitutional monarchy, with a tad more power vested in me. I would crush those that attempt violent insurrection, but would build a capitalist economy and a social services program that worked.
Then Iwould get ready to get invaded.
Your goals are incompatible. You can’t be an absolute dictator and have free elections. You can’t even have a real capitalist exonomy, which will create other power centers within your country.
You can’t even defend your country with only paid mercenaries. Take it over, maybe – defend it, no. Mercenaries will bail of they see a professional army heading their way. You have to give the locals some reason to “buy into” your regime so they are willing to defend it. Admittedly, in some countries this amounts to no more than steady meals.
You need a cabal. A cabinet with locals, and you MUST give them considerable amounts of power. This would be different if you yourself were a local and had come up through the ranks, but as an outsider every hand will be turned against you.
If I had the winning littery ticket, I’d go for an uninhabited island with a decent water supply. Then I’d invite gazillionaires to move there as a tax shelter, and many women to be my “deputies”.
Only MHO, you understand.
Well, there are practical and political problems, people generally cannot be ruled by force alone.
But getting into the spirit of the thing the root problem is legitamacy. If you become the internationally recognized government, well hunky-dorry. Otherwise, without international recognition, you dot get any of the good stuff. No seat in the UN, no flags at Andrews AB, no IMF loans.
So doing it in the country is somewhat easy. Pulling it off in the international arena and a bt more complex.
After 9/11 wasn’t there talk about the U.S. being “allowed” to assassinate “enemies” again?
It seems as thought the military route would be wasteful and inefficient. If you had the cash, simply go to some tropical fruit republic and buy and bribe your way into being the power behind the throne. This has the advantage of maintaining whatever wretched infrastructure already exists and you have a military to maintain control (right up til the point where the inevitable military junta shows up to throw you and your puppets out of office).
Based on a recent thread, this is roughly how the US got Hawaii.
The trouble is, how do you keep control once you’ve set up your squalid dictatorship? Your mercenaries will need to be paid. Do you have steady sources of money to keep paying for them? If the country you conquered provided enough of a revenue stream that you could use that to pay your mercenaries, then why hasn’t a local already taken over? This is how the Gulf States stay in power…the government controls the oil wells, and uses that money to pay the army. Any country with a significant cash export will be able to use that money to pay for enough soldiers to resist pretty much any privately financed venture.
And if the country DOESN’T provide any revenue, why would you conquer it? I suppose you might eventually see a return on your investment if you managed to build up the economy and start up exports, but that would be many years in the future.
The other trouble is that no other country would recognize yours. First world counties won’t out of principle. And third world countries probably won’t either, out of the uncomfortable realization that if they legitimize your regime, they might be next in line.
The bottom line is that there are many areas of the world that are essentially beyond the reach of any government, and wealthy/powerful people who live there can make their own rules and live as virtual dictators on their own lands. The trouble comes from the OTHER warlords and aristocrats. And how are you going prevent an uprising? If you keep the population ground into poverty they have no chance of revolting, but they also don’t produce wealth for you. If you allow them to produce wealth you have to give up power, allow education, and expose them to international trade.
George Herbert Walker Bush’s maternal grandfather, Colonel Walker, invaded Nicaragua with the intent to do apparently something similar.
They didn’t seem grateful, and later the Hondurans offed him.
http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/FieldCourses00/PapersCostaRicaArticles/CostaRicain1856.Defeating.html
and
http://www.famousamericans.net/williamwalker1/