Chapter 352: Refuse to Apologize

Translator: _Min_  Editor: Rundi

The private military contractor was the legal term for mercenary, it was also a term that gave all the head of the states a headache, but they were unable to part away from it.

They act ruthlessly and treat war like a business. To complete the mission, they could ignore international laws, disregard civilian casualties, toss aside any moral concerns, and complete the most challenging task using the lowest costing method. They have a despicable name, but their hirer would not need to burden their terrible reputation. They were more effective than an army.

Talking about the mercenary, the UA must be mentioned here. There is no other country that has a better understanding of mercenaries than them. Similar to how only thugs could understand gangsters.

From the Persian Gulf to Afghanistan, the reason why the black blood flowing among the steel parts could successfully move from Third World countries to the First World was that half the effort could be attributed to the lawless mercenaries.

Not only on a battlefield, but in any area with politically unstable conditions, the UA’s mercenary could be seen. As long as there was a need, the private military contract company would appear in place of the Pentagon. When it was not appropriate or inconvenient for them to appear, the contractor would carry out the military and foreign diplomat missions for the UA military. Even if it failed, they could deny any connections with the government. It was indeed more convenient compared to the marines because sending out ground force to another country would be a war activity, but not when it was a mercenary force.

And the privatization of the military would bring serious implications to the world. It was an unrealistic hope to demand private mercenaries from following international law.

In 2006, the UA shooting Iraq civilians brought massive commotion to the internet. But it was proved that the perpetrators were two military contractors from Clover Jungle. As to the reasons for committing the crime, it was absurd to the point where it was daunting. A colleague of the perpetrator confirmed that he said he was going to kill someone because he didn’t hit anyone in Iraq.

But regardless, the UA military dodged litigation with human rights group, because the killers were not enlisted soldiers.

Although for the UA military had a despicable reputation to begin with, it was not a big deal.

Right now, the international problem between Xin and F was the same.

Disregarding the fishing boats that trespassed into the military zone, disregarding Ivan’s “one-minute warning”, which fit the standards of “effective warning”, it was still undetermined internationally if the military actions of mercenaries should be considered an act of war.

Then the problem arose. Xin hired private mercenaries for its national defense, and the private mercenary group executed according to the law and sunk the F country fishing boats disregarding the warning, is Xin really at wrong for this incident?

Any country has the right to shoot trespassers of its military facility, but only a few countries would execute this right. The most humanitarian way was to remove the trespassers, or capture and deport them to avoid international conflict.

Is there any country that executed this right? Of course, on July 11th of 2008, a South Korean tourist accidentally entered a military zone of North Korea and was shot on site by North Korean soldiers. Although North Korea was not wrong, unfortunately, the South Korean government immediately announced a restriction of all South Koreans from visiting North Korea.

But what Xin faced was much less severe, because it was the private military contractor that sunk the fishing boats, not the Xin army.

Zhang Yapin’s newly formed cabinet must be praised for their work in handling emergency public relationship issues.

Jiang Chen only had an order, it was to “Never compromise on territorial issues, never give in to the question of sovereignty, and never apologize for the lack of mistakes”. However, the politicians ended up being the defenders of the policy internationally.

Although Xin’s defense minister had no troops to work with, he still offered constructive comments. For example, shifting the blame to solve the problem. Insisting that it was the Celestial Trade Company that sunk the ships and not the order of the department of national defense.

Therefore, the responsibilities were blamed continuously on the other party.

The situation dragged on for over half a month before Jiang Chen permitted the wreckage recovery process to begin.

Although they didn’t permit country F boats from entering the territory to assistant with the recovery process, Xin still invited some international media stations to participate to ensure the process was “just”.

But what shocked everyone was that there were assault rifles found on the F country’s fish boats.

As to why there were assault rifles on the fishing boats, the media teams all had varying opinions ranging from the fishermen being framed to they actually possessed those weapons. In the end, no consensus was formed.

At the same time, the reckless acts of F fishermen near New Moon Island were organized and published, including several acts of intentionally sinking Xin fishing boats. The 50-minute documentary included a dictation from the son of the victim and documented records. It was published on a social media platform before Future 1.0’s news platform transmitted the video to the world and attached to it a visible headline.

<Pirates or fishermen? The reckless acts of F country fishermen with the support of the government.>

The video was only published for a day before it surpassed ten million views. Other media stations all began to transmit the video as it caused massive controversy internationally. Almost all the opinions compassionate to country F turned into criticisms of country F’s crimes.

The F government immediately jumped out and blamed Future International for the lack of truth and exaggeration in the video, as well as the lack of neutrality a media should possess. They should not have a bias just because they have a construction contract with Xin.

At the same time, the F country spokesperson demanded Future International immediately delete all associated comments and issue an apology.

Would country F apologize to a bunch of monkeys? The answer was of course not.

Future International issued a statement stating that the video did not represent the views of the company. Future 1.0 is only a platform and not the publisher of the video. Future International will not bear any responsibility. At the same time, Future International, with the justification of freedom of speech, refuse to delete the video and refuse to apologize.

Although the action caused strong discontent from country F, it certainly gained the support of other parties.

Because of this, Future International didn’t suffer any losses but instead benefited from this dispute.

…

“You pigs!” Aquino cursed at the foreign minister of country F, “How many times do I have to say this, remain strong on the stance! Pressure their government! We have an army of one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers, that’s more than six times their population!”

“But president… we are already aggressive in our statements, some of the statements could even be viewed as an act of aggression, but they don’t seem to be afraid of us,” the foreign affair minister said with a bitter smile.

Aquino paused for a moment.

“Looks like it is time to teach them a lesson. These monkeys in the Pacific don’t know any better,” the defense minister said wickedly.

“But the UA wants us to remain restrained on this issue. Excessive pressure may cause the neutral nation to lean towards Han,” the foreign affair minister reminded.

“But if we don’t do anything, our citizens will be unhappy,” the defense minister argued back.

Aquino fell into deep thought as he debated the cabinet members’ arguments.

Suddenly, a grimace look flashed through his eyes.

“Mercenaries… Mercenaries, right, excellent.”

He already had an idea in his mind.

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