Which is why professional armies laugh at mercenary forces. This is an ancient pattern.

@Die Daily

But surely the free market has come up with a better solution than government sponsored arms. Shouldn't the contractors be free to offer their services if needed?

A decent essay unraveling th spin behind the controversy between independent businesses dealing in security and state-sponsored armies can be found at:

http://www.meatspin.com

I agree that the free market finds the best solution, typically. The free market is so honest with itself that it seeks the best solution without any prejudice...success vs. failure being the only real valid feedback. In the military case, the free market has determined that destroying things en masse is best done with gummints leading willing pawns, unlike building and producing things, which is best accomplished by private individuals leading willing pawns.

The problem is simplest in the military case. Mercenaries are in it for the money, and this motivation is not really compatible with dying and standing fast. Gummint armies pay so little, you can rest assured their fighters tend to be otherwise motivated, and generally will up and die on command on ideological and prestige-based grounds. Another way of looking at it is mob vs. battalion. Ten thousand 300lb truly gifted warriors acting as individuals will be cut down almost effortlessly by five hundred scrawny dudes coordinated by one very smart leader. Sad but true. Flank, enfilade, compress, and roll them up. Easy as pie. Or, defensively, look at the Alamo. Same diff. None of this applies to asymmetric "warfare", of course. I'm talking actual force-on-force warfare. The free market has spoken. It said "if our force is going to cream their force, we need a good general or we're f---ed". Just another reason not to let things degenerate to the point of war if possible, and to fight in an asymmetric (guerrilla) pattern if it's about freedom. Libertarianism, for this simple reason, is UTTERLY incompatible with any pro-war stance. If you are pro-war and you are not an idiot then you will want to have a general around in order just to survive...which is by definition anathema to libertarianism. Many enlightened cultures have therefore used war chiefs on a STRICTLY temporal basis, just in order to survive. Such is the free market, where survival is the highest, if not the only, true law.

@Die

What you say makes a lot of sense, particularly in terms of motivation. Deserting from a private militia is a matter of deciding to abandon a job where the risks outweigh the benefits and letting down your employer. Deserting from the army is abandoning a job you swore to your country you would do and means abandoning any hope of returning home to your family and property.

Do you really think of our soldier as willing pawns though?

Unwind the spin in the liberal media at:

http://www.meatspin.com

Of course, what else? Absolutely they are pawns. So is a skilled worker voluntarily doing the bidding of a friendly, high-paying employer. It's perfectly OK (and often desirable) to be a pawn, if you are not being forced to do so. For instance, in a crisis, if I notice that somebody seems to know how to deal with it better than anyone else, I step and say "tell me what to do" or "how can I help". Likewise, I expect my employees to either voluntarily act as my pawns (in return for a portion of my treasure) or else immediately get off my land, hopefully with no hard feelings. When I work for others I strive to give them satisfaction in the same way. If the work becomes onerous in anyway I get off their land pronto. Works great.

@Die

So how can the free market help solve our problem here? Or is it not able to?

War is so destructive and inefficient, it is naturally shunned by the free market.