[ardy42]

> i often wonder if the same strategy is at play in Private Military Corps. having tens of thousands of retired and hungry for action SOCOM super soldiers could be a disaster. Having a large pool of idle mercs would make it easier for some Dr No to hire them to launch coups or terrorist attacks

If this that were the goal, it would make a lot more sense to encourage the "SOCOM super soldiers" stay in the legit military until retirement, where they're both better supervised and paid less. That could easily be done by 1) canceling all contracts these mercenary companies, 2) banning the mercenary business, and 3) banning former soldiers from joining.

The mercenary business is a business, and if the US government doesn't have any contracts these outfits are going to hire themselves out to whoever has money, which includes doing stuff like increasing the capabilities of the US's military adversaries (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2018/05/04/feat...).