Combat Gear

Guerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army.

The guerrilla army uses ambush and mobility in attacking vulnerable targets in enemy territory. More often, attacks in enemy territory are called strikes and are conducted by small groups of professional soldiers. However, guerrillas are usually non-government civilians and are either impressed by local guerrilla leaders or volunteer. Guerrillas are usually fighting invaders of their home territory. Often, the invaders are in control of all or a portion of the home territory of the civilians who become guerrillas, and for that reason they can be considered attacking the "enemy" territory of their own homeland. A main tactic of the guerrillas is sabotage. This would include destruction or impediment of traffic (such as placing plates upside down on a highway to force invaders to slow down in order to check for road mines, or removal of all street signs), electrical or other forms of power, the previously stated ambush as well as any other form of warfare designed to inflict damage on the invaders and avoid direct confrontation with the enemy forces which are normally better equipped and larger (that's why the locals regular army lost out to the invaders). This term means "little war" in Spanish and was created during the Peninsular War. Reading Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls", who was an ambulance driver for the injured guerrillas of the Spanish Civil War, gives a sense of the local nature of guerrilla warfare, with each village having its own guerrilla leader and the sabotage tactics used by guerrillas. The concept acknowledges a conflict between armed civilians against a powerful nation state army, either foreign or domestic.

The tactics of guerrilla warfare were used successfully in the 20th century by, among others, the People's Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War, the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence, and Fidel Castro's rebel army in the Cuban Revolution. Most factions of the Iraqi Insurgency and groups such as FARC are said to be engaged in some form of guerrilla warfare.

A mercenary is a professional soldier hired by a foreign army, as opposed to a soldier enlisted in the armed forces of the sovereign state of which he/she is a citizen. He/She takes part in armed conflict on many different scales, and is "motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party" (Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Convention of August 1949).Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol 1) Article 47 "mercenary" in Webster's Dictionary. "one that serves merely for wages; especially a soldier hired into foreign service." A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he gets remuneration for his service.

As a result of the assumption that a mercenary is essentially motivated by money, the term "mercenary" usually carries negative connotations, though that can be a compliment in some contexts. There is a blur in the distinction between a "mercenary" and a "foreign volunteer", when the primary motive of a soldier in a foreign army is uncertain. For instance, the French Foreign Legion and the Gurkhas are not mercenaries under the laws of war, since although they may meet many of the requirements of Article 47 of the 1949 Additional Protocol I, they are exempt under clauses 47(a)(c)(d)(e)&(f); some journalists describe them as mercenaries regardless.Hall, Macer. Student joins Foreign Legion for his gap year Sunday Telegraph, 19 March 2000McLynn, Frank. Killer elite New Statesman 17 January

A private military company (PMC) provides specialized expertise or services of a military nature, sometimes called or classified as mercenary ("soldiers for hire"). Such companies are equally known as private military contractors, Private Security Contractors (PSCs), Private Military Corporations, Private Military Firms, Military Service Providers, and generally as the Private Military Industry.

The services and expertise cover those typically found in governmental military or police forces, but most often on a smaller scale. While PMCs often provide services to train or supplement official armed forces in service of governments, they are also employed by private firms. However, contractors who use offensive force in a war zone could be considered unlawful combatants, thereby referring to the "concept" being implicitly mentioned in the Geneva Conventions and explicitly specified by the US Military Commissions Act.

Private military companies supply bodyguards for the Afghan president and pilot armed reconnaissance planes and helicopter gunships to destroy Coca crops in Colombia.

Private Security Transnational Enterprises in Colombia José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers' Collective February, 2008. They are licensed by the United States Department of State, they are contracting with foreign governments, training soldiers and reorganizing militaries in Nigeria, Bulgaria, Taiwan, and Equatorial Guinea . The PMC industry is now worth over $100 billion a year.