Mercenaries instead of National Soldiers

Mercs are glorified mall cops.

>>35030348
/thread

You need to stop thinking Solid Snake and start thinking Paul Blart.

This should have never been published. Thankfully, the NYTimes pulled it down because Prince is a lunatic.

Yes, we're back to nation-building in Afghanistan. No, we're not leaving anytime soon.

>>35030348
This. They guard the trucks delivering cheesecake to the base.

They are usually qualified, like the guys in 13 hours. But that was an extreme situation. Usually qualified guys who do absolutely nothing though.

The op-ed is still up.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/opinion/erik-prince-contractors-afghanistan.html

So he was just shilling blackwater 2.0.

Are they qualified then? If they are qualified, why do nothing with them and waste them on shitty jobs?

>>35030393
Because there is no chain of command among civilians. Not a legitimate one. So you can't task them to do anything.

What your asking is like when a fat redneck lady puffing on her cigarette and coughing saying, " well if ya ask me, we should just take all the prisoners to Iraq and have them fight Tha al queda".

>>35030393
If you can't see the problem with a U.S.-backed mercenary army occupying Afghanistan without a fraction of the oversight and legitimacy the U.S. military brings to the table, I don't know if I can help you.

>>35030436
>>35030444
I'm not American. It sounds crazy to me as well. But I thought there was something I was not aware of, seeing how he has the president's ear and it has been actually discussed as an option.

>>35030455
It is crazy. What Prince is suggesting makes zero sense to any rational person.

>>35030338
The difference between mercenaries and soldiers is that soldiers theoretically have to answer to a government governing by the consent of the governed and it would look really bad if they admitted that was not the case.

Mercenaries answer to their employer who answers to contract holders or the owner of the company. Should the government lose control over an area with it's borders due to insurrection there, any owners of mercenary companies will have all the power in that region should they choose to take it.

And all it will take to start an insurrection is a strong motive shared by many useful idiots, sympathetic local governments, and some inciting incident and publishers to legitimize it. Beware of antifa, for they have the first two already, and many people willing to legitimize them.

>>35030491
Yeah, that's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure I had heard all the facts. Shit just doesn't add up.

>>35030535
You veered a bit /pol/ towards the end, but otherwise you make a very good point. It's amazing how the hell did the US contract these people.

>>35030348
Actually i read that a lot of polish ops from GROM went to work as mercs, wonder if thats true.

>>35030348
>thinks about modern mercs
>not golden age 1980s mercs
Executive Outcomes could have saved Africa

Back in the 90's I hired into a very efficient PMC that was specialized in extraction. Mercs are not held to the same standards of warfare. If you needed to remove someone that kept you from your objective, you did it. Pure and simple. Tap out with sure aim, get on with the job, get to the extraction point.

>>35030578
This thread is about current day mercs. Hell, even back in the 80's most mercs were losers who couldn't cut it in a real military and usually just got shitfaced in some jungle somewhere. Executive Outcomes was an outlier in being actually competent and doing a lot of operating.
>>35030567
I'm sure a lot of special forces types join private security firms after they get out, but that doesn't mean that they aren't still fancy rentacops.

>>35030591
Sounds cool. Can you share the name of the PMC?

>>35030684
Was no name. It was funded by a church. I was with that crew for two years.

>>35030822
Tell me about your experience and how it changed you, if you please.

File: johnrambo_13.jpg (191KB, 800x600px) Image search: [Google]

191KB, 800x600px

>>35030822
>specializes in extraction
>funded by a church
>worked in the 90's
i found a pic of your squad i think

>>35031179
But, anon, why would anyone lie on the internet?

File: ds_3535_PCA.jpg (2MB, 3462x2597px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 3462x2597px

>>35030338
Mercenaries and contractors are completely different. If you're a US citizen and you sign on to fight with another foreign power or government body you can be charged with treason and murder. You aren't exempt from criminal charges just because you're fighting in another land for another foreign power or government body.

Contractors on the other hand are contracted through their own governing body and are glorified errand boys that get payed more than the military for 1/2 the work and a 1/4th of the danger. Most of the time they just deliver plastic forks to and from bases.

>>35030444
Yeah, cause groups like SAD aren't just going to do what they want anyway.

>>35030444
>oversight and legitimacy of the us military
>saying this unironically after a 15 year fucked up war that has literally drained this country of pride, resources, and strategic options
Confirmed for neverserved civie.

>>35031933
>that reply

So you're both confirmed for civi then.

>>35030338

Mercenaries are military guys who had their military careers fucked up or realized that a guy who drives tanks is not that much usefull in civilian life. There are also mercenaries that are still in the military but try to make a bit more by going on "vacation" for a few weeks.

They are your usual soldier, but with a
one difference. you don't have to provide them with intelligence, air cover or rescue services, sometimes you don't even have to give them any kind of living space or food and since they are usually SF they can take harder jobs and no one cares if they die.

So, if you need a guy to start distributing supplies among FOBs in dangerous areas they become much more cost effective, and if they fail in their task you just lost some numbers in your logistic chain.

For VIPs I don't know that much, but I think it goes along the same lines. They are literally no one, and as such no one cares about what happens to them.

Thats not to say that they don't see combat, they are used against pirates and to protect civilian crews working recronstructing infrastructure in warzones and I have heard about one or two special operations done with contractors instead of your usual SF but I would say they are more of the exception than the rule.

Now, at the momment you break this, and start using them extensively you are getting all the disvantages and nullifying the advantages. The mercenaries are offering a service and they require profits and they can start demanding official support or a budget increase in their contracts for their won support, they get more exposed and people would start caring a bit more about them to the point where we might start to see some actual regulations and laws applied to them.

It might get to a point where you will end up paying a soldier+private intermediaries and at that point I would say its easier to simply fix your relations with the military industrial complex.