Mithril - a possible reality?

Mithril is fictional organisation in Full Metal Panic series which is a self appointed military force (or mercenary) that fights terrorism across the globe and intercedes on behalf of justice.

So can such a organisation be possible to even exist in our modern world? It makes alot of sense to have an independent force that has no financial or political self-interest in any of the contry's of conflicts. Because lets us put it bluntly, countries do not go and liberate people from injustices just because it is the right thing to do. When the US went to Iraq to bring down Saddam, you can say in that they had many major interest in it which to them was worth the men and resources for such an effort. But what about the conflicts in Africa? The corrupt goverments there? Does the US go and send their troops there to solve it? No because they don't have a major interest in it. Any country goverment before sending off major resources such as their army to anywhere will always put their self-interest first. Its just what a goverment is supposed to do.

A military/mercenary organisation such as Mithril is one where they can actually perform direct action on trouble regions without to say "It is not in my interest" or "There are other countries stopping me". Of course such an organisation must really have BIG connections and MAJOR financial resources to pull it off. And not to mention a major foothold in advance technology. And yes it seems quite a silly notion for an organisation main purpose to be just for justice. But it would really solve alot of the world's conflict when direct action is really neded instead of all these diplomacy and backroom talking crap that always happens.

I have been reading the Full Metal Panic novels which has better describes the organisation and I am really inspired by it. As much as it it fictional, if I ever been able to make my billion AND the right connections, I'll be sure to try to start up an organisation like that.

>>14
You can't compete on R&D. Don't bother trying.

Besides, as I said, tech is not as important as you think. The basics are a knife and gun; everything else is up to training, discipline, and group-work. You'll get a lot more value for the dollar if you invest in your troops.

For example, take a look at wargames between the US and other Western countries. While the elite units of these countries are roughly comparable (simplification), a regular US soldier has a difficult time competing against his counterparts, even with the advantage of more advanced tech that the US enjoys.

That is not to say that technology is useless. It does give an advantage when in trained hands, but you don't have such liberty. You have to invest the money you have to have best effect. By using the best COTS you can get, you'd still be ahead of 95% of the opponents you'd face, and someone else would be paying for all that R&D (and testing, refining, yadda yadda).