^^^^^^^^^^!!!!!!!!EXACTLY!!!!!!^^^^^^

Trust me when I tell you that no one signs up for Blackwater to "see combat". All you have to do now is enlist in the Army as an 11B and you WILL see combat. Take it up to Ranger Regiments and 18 series troops and you're looking at combat on an annual basis for as long as you're serving with that organization.

For a while, I was pissed off about these groups simply because they often drained SOF of good soldiers just because of the money. In retrospect, I don't blame them. If I'm going to go overseas and risk my life regardless of whether its in uniform or not, why not get paid as much as possible. The Army has money to buy elaborate equipment, conduct research and send guys on vacation like TDY.........why not raise the pay for these guys? Makes sense to me.

 

It does add up. These are, in large part, the same group of soldiers who were complaining about having their hands tied by the ROE in the regular service. Now, they don't have that constraint put on them.

And you skirted the question: when has a mercenary force (which these NO DOUBT are, by definition) caused a positive in a war. I can't find a single instance where hired forces saved the day for anyone but the bad guys or themselves.

If that happened, then they would have already gone to far and there would have been signs that they were progressing towards vigilante behavior. What could those signs be...

 

Blackwater helped rescue the Polish ambassador yesterday, along with some American soldiers + civilians

 

I was just about to say, how is it "un-American"... They are acting like blackwater is a relatively new thing. Mercenaries have been around since the beginning of time


Hmm, now why isn't THAT plastered all over the news... oh wait... i know why...

you obviously have no idea wtf you are talking about. Blackwater has done more good in the middle east then you could even imagine

 

the united states hired french mercenaries during the american revolution, and the both the union and the confedracy employed irish mercenaries during the civil war.

 

^^^^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/69th_In...ited_States%29
you mean the 69th infantry unit not mercenary.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_and_German_Mercenary_Soldiers'_Revolt
I believe you might have been referring to this war maybe. sorry if thats off topic.

 

According to this,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War
,the British hired mercenaries during the revolutionary war...the Americans had allies. MAJOR difference.


And as far as I can tell, all the foreigners in the civil war actually joined the Union military and served in regiments. There's less info about the foreigners fighting for the South.

 

How does that justify it?!?! Slavery and prostitution have also been around since the beginning of time...

Awesome, unsubstantiated anecdotal evidence.

Mercenaries are bad...our gov't and our leaders say so when they're used by others. But we're above that? F*** that. The very reason our country is utilizing them is because it's convenient to have people fighting for us that aren't classified as our armed forces. UnAmerican.

 

I disagree. These are the guys that did their time honorably and thought that they could afford to buy a house by working at BW for awhile. I almost joined a private security agency and know many that have, including my uncle who just wanted to afford a cabin in Idaho near a stream. He settled for one near Placerville instead. Let's face the fact that ROE would fly out the window in an ambush for Soldiers even and that civilians could still come under fire in that intense fog of war. Likewise, Army Joe could still show-up drunk and shoot an innocent person. It's all the same either way.


Depends on your level of expectation. And for the record I think you're asking WAY too much if you want them to save the day by any means. Not even regular service members can save the day given their mission(s), not by a long shot.

And what have they done that's not positive? Again, I'm confused about what you want. They've been 100% effective at performing their job despite loses in the worst ways imaginable (Fallujah), they provide a level of expertise, they're a considerable force multiplier in that they cover-down on a mission(s) Soldiers would otherwise do effectively. If they didn't do this it would inevitably mean more troops required or spreading the current in-theatre troops thinner to further exhaustion and stress. Sounds like they’re done pretty well. The only down side is that they cost more.

What exactly are your requirements?

 

I make 40-45K a year as an E5 in the Navy currently. That is also with Monterey BAH which one fourth in the nation. If i got out and went to work for BW or ASG, I would start around 80-90K, plus other pays depending on the mission. Would any of you take an increase in pay that high for doing a similar job, without so much micro managing going on? I know I would.

 

Well i hate to tell you but...

Age:
25


if it wasn't for these 'mercenaries' over there, both yours and my asses would be enlisting for the draft tomorrow



pretty much, my friend was seriously considering joining, he was emailing the recruit back and forth. I guess he said they make around 100k for their first year in iraq, then 160k for the next 6 months or something

 

Here we go. Newsflash: Nobody wants you unless you’re willing to serve!

I'm sick and tired of the notion that a draft would start if it weren't for a measure already in place here or there. Look, when I was on IRR I was never called-up for duty during both conflicts. A lot of people weren’t. Who would they want more? Someone that's been trained and invested in or some joe schmoe who learned to shoot playing RPG games? If there’s an urgent need for people they’ll pull from the IRR first, then maybe a draft as an absolute last resort.

 

I bet if they did reinstate a draft someone would sue the government, and probably win