The UAE Blackwater story

I don't understand what all the fuss is about this mercenary army being formed in the United Arab Emirates. Gulf states have paid foreign soldiers to do their work for decades. Pakistan has an entire battalian ready to be deployed at a moments notice for the Saudis. In the Emirates, there are entire bases filled with Morrocan soldiers to operate the French planes and equipment for the UAE army. In Saudi Arabia, the United States was rewarded handsomely for repelling the threat of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 1991. So why is it odd that, at a time of widespread discontent, some rulers are taking additional measures to protect their position? Blackwater, or R2 as they are now known, are not the sinister villain here. There have always been mercenaries as long as there has been war, so get over it.