Is a Soldier any Different from a Mercenary or a Drug Cartel's Thugs?

Basically I can't see the difference. Anyone going all over the world to protect a company's interests, or a person's interests, or a nation's interest is basically fighting for the position of top gun in the drug war. Of course, our drug could be oil, or gold, or cheap labor, or free land. I can understand having a National Guard and a Coast Guard to protect from invasion of another drug lord/country. This seems reasonable. But the United States alone has more people, under all sorts of titles, killing, destabilizing, interfering, selling arms and drugs in more countries than most of us could ever name.

I don't see the distinction between this and the fighting drug lords in Mexico or Colombia. In fact, I am willing to bet that many of the very same people are involved. When I was in Guatemala during the troubles, the USA supposedly had only military advisers there. (Who needs them after the goons had been trained at The School of the Americas?) On a daily basis we saw Navy Seals,Black Berets, contractors, Us helicopters spraying defoliant, Us equipment, all sorts of shit. 240,000 Guatemalans dead at the sort of end of our helping.The UN Human Right's Commission reporting on all manner of atrocities, all taught by us, supported by us, denied by us. I can't see any difference from the way the other, non national, drug armies work.

In El Salvador, the very rich, very tough, very well armed US mercenaries would brag in the bars at night about their actions, both there and in all the other countries they had 'worked'. Think of any country that has had a lot of trouble, a lot of violence, a lot of shit coming down on all the women and children and you can name the countries they named. In who's name are we doing this? By what righteous thought can we justify our military, CIA, NSA, Blackwater, actions? Oh yes, spreading Democracy. Getting rid of tyrants we have created. Or fighting for our drugs? Oil, gold, rare minerals? More markets for arms? We sell 87% of all the arms on the planet. We supply and train the very same people we fight against later on. Weird shit. Pablo Escobar had nothing on the US CIA.

I expect that the karma of all this will be brutal. It kind of already is. Our gun violence in our own country is a sample of our future.