Private security contractors and the American tradition
Posted: Friday, September 28, 2007
The bitter controversy over the government's reliance on private security providers shows an insufficient grasp of history, IWP's Professor J. Michael Waller writes in RealClearPolitics.com.
America's private security contractor tradition, he argues, dates to 1607 when the Virginia Company of London hired Captain John Smith, a former professional soldier, to run security operations for the settlement at Jamestown. In his essay, published September 28, Waller traces the private security contractor industry in America over the past 400 years.
The Pilgrims sailing for America aboard the Mayflower in 1620 hired another veteran soldier, Captain Myles Standish, to protect the colonists from Indians and other Europeans. The Mayflower sailed with a hold laden with cannons and infantry weapons under Standish's direction.
Waller is editor of a new magazine, Serviam, that is devoted to the global stability industry.
