Battleland

An Ex-GI Trains Libyan Rebels How To Fight

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Fascinating piece by Steven Sotloff in Benghazi about a beefy and cigar-chomping former U.S. soldier training Libyan rebels how to fight:

The selling of military expertise by foreign privateers, or mercenaries, is known as the world’s second oldest profession. But [Jerry] Erwin insists motives are more altruistic and that he is not being paid. He went to Libya in early May, he says, because he was “impressed with the Libyans’ struggle against a dictator.” Having served with the 101st Airborne in the 1980s, Erwin has spent the past 25 years as an Army Reserve intelligence officer specializing in counterintelligence and strategic analysis.

President Obama has pledged no American boots on the ground inside Libya. But even the commander-in-chief can’t control freelancers.