Washington hawks learned from the Vietnam experience that when U.S. troops begin dying in combat, U.S. public opinion goes sour quickly. But these 'civilians' are in fact military veterans, many with Vietnam combat experience, who work for private U.S. corporations such as Military Professional Resources, DynCorp and Virginia Electronics. These companies have to be licensed by the U.S. State Department, assuring that only those that adhere to Washington's foreign policy agenda receive government accreditation. Military Professional Resources, which was formed in 1987 by retired U.S. Army General Vernon Lewis, was contracted by the Clinton Administration in 1999 to send military advisors to work with the Colombian Army. Obviously, if somebody gets killed or whatever, you can say it's not a member of the armed forces.
Nobody wants to see American military men killed.
This new strategy's success is illustrated by the fact that at least three DynCorp 'civilians' have been killed in the line of duty in Colombia with little or no press coverage in the United States. DynCorp pilots and crew, accompanied by Colombian military personnel, routinely fly sorties over guerrilla-controlled territory, with the State Department stipulation that Colombians must man the guns. It was DynCorp pilots who were flying the State Department helicopter sent to rescue the downed Colombian air crew in the FARC-controlled territory of southern Colombia. This incident received some attention in the mainstream media, but nowhere near the coverage it would have received had official U.S. military forces been attacked by Colombian guerrillas. The government's emphasis on the word 'civilian' blurs the public's perception of the actual extent of Washington's military involvement in Colombia.