Mercenaries and Myths

[Pekka]

Completely missed the point there, Theben .

I meant, if your country is in trouble, you don't mind if I come along and volunteer for you. I'd like to see someone saying 'go away you evil offspring!'....

[Wraith]

Just had to tagline this one.

Wraith
"Sad to say, America no longer engages in the kind of ground wars that made this country great. But that doesn't mean that savage hand to hand combat is out of your reach! Mercanary soldiers go where the money is! You not only kill, but get paid well for doing it! Ooooh, what a racket!"
-- General Buckonroy ("Daria")

[Pekka]

I already talked about the money thing. For some it's the money, for some it's not. The money is not very big, and you make more money doing just about anything else.

[Theben]

Originally posted by Pekka
Completely missed the point there, Theben .

That's okay. I completely missed the point of this thread.

[Pekka]

The point is to discuss about this, and to aknowledge there are myths that won't always apply.

[molly bloom]

Gosh Pekka, whatever you’re on I’ll have some....

Another poor misunderstood employee or entrepreneur:

Your friendly neighbourhood H.I.V. + crack whore with an assortment of various children by who knows how many fathers...

Hey, she’s just trying to spread a little happiness, get through the day, and deal with her addiction in her own way. Right? And yes, she’s filling a gap in the market,, because there are people out there who want condomless sex, and other sex workers simply aren’t dealing with that niche. Stuff beatifying Mother Theresa. Let’s hear it for crack ho Cindy !!!

I love the way you somehow assume that because professional soldiers get paid and so do mercenaries, then they must be similar in some way. Something which hadn’t occurred to me...

And we should feel sorry for the dogs of war, because the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply to them. Well, that’s right, and guess what? Mostly they don’t apply the Geneva Convention either- so they can wilfully maim, mutilate, torture, rape, murder and sexually abuse adults and children, and do. Must be awful not having a structured command and a freewheeling sense of morality.

Perhaps we should ask some of those lovely mercenaries in Angola, Mozambique, Zaire, Sierra Leone and Liberia- the ones who routinely chop off children’s limbs, and use under age girls as sex slaves. Because let’s face it, it must be difficult not knowing where your next pay cheque is coming from, and you just have to burn off some of that nervous tension....

Still, they’re the professionals, just trying to a job of work....

[GePap]

I have no pity or respect for mercenaries. And they have never been known to be reliable, which is why states with any money prefer to make proffesionals out of citizens to fight their wars. People use private soldiers when they have no legitimacy, or want it done cheap.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Pekka
No I'm not. Most are just blinded by the bad reputation.
For example, I doubt none of you would turn me down and think me as a son of devil if I volunteered FOR YOU.

Yes I would think that of you, if you were the sort I was looking to hire.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by GePap
I have no pity or respect for mercenaries. And they have never been known to be reliable, which is why states with any money prefer to make proffesionals out of citizens to fight their wars. People use private soldiers when they have no legitimacy, or want it done cheap.

Good private soldiers aren't cheap, and PMC's are all the coming fashion when the public is jaded about it's own citizens getting killed.

As for reliability, it depends who/what you hire. Mad Mike was certainly a stand-up chap, and when not hung out to dry, his Wild Geese did very good work.

[Pekka]

GePap, Wrong! PMCs are used ALL THE TIME, now especially. They are hired all the time, business is good now. Did I say there are PMCs in the US too? Listen, they are completely legal. And they keep being legal as long as they don't help criminals, rebels, terrorists and what not. YOu think they are cheap??? They don't do big offensives! They do only 'small' operations. No one has 10 000 guys in their ranks there. They are smaller, but highly pro and effective.

MOST OF THE TIME, they don't do conventional fighting. They do security consulting, security missions like body guarding etc, and YES even purely humanitarian missions. Lots of them are doing mine sweeping, for example I think it was Lebanon who contracted some companies to hired PMCs to clear some, was it UN or someone else who gave them the money, and they chose the hard working guys who will do it properly. It's all based on reputation, if you don't have one, you don't get another job, naturally.

Some of you have really weird images about mercenaries. Like they are all pirates, look and sound like pirates, just looking for someone to pay them $10 so they can kill some women and children. I'm not saying there are no rotten apples there, I'm sure there is true sickos. I have no sympathy for them. I have no sympathy for mercenaries in general, I'm just breaking few myths.

We have one of the most horrible generalizations here I've ever seen. And sure someone did pretty badly in Africa, Congo etc in 70s, but.. that was then, they were one company, and there are lots of them and this is now. I guess you have no grasp of what it takes to be a LEGAL pmc. They can't go and kill random people when they wish to do that. And it's not good business, and not professional.

I've asked many times, do you guys consider soldiers in general the same then? Soldiers are known to kill people, in professional armies they get paid. And if war happens, they HAVE to go fighting. Mercs don't have to fight if they so choose. THey can choose their side too, that's more flexible. Oh, and pro soldiers don't have a choice? Yes they do. Don't join. Why the hell people will join the army and then wonder that now they have to do war????????

There are no individuals, who go to commanders and say 'I'm hardcore pay me $10 000 a month and I'll kill some enemy civies for yoU!'. I guess some of you thinks this is reality!
These days you either join PMC, or you go and volunteer for someone. And they pay you CRAP money. So you can't say they fight for the money, if youj make 300 deutcshe marks per month. Right?! And volunteers are not all evil and bad civilian killers. I'm grateful for the Estonian, Swedish etc volunteers who helped us! I don't go peeing on their graves because they were 'mercs'.

Molly Bloom, what a beautiful analogy you had there.

MtG, What kind of people you'd be hiring then, you sick man?

People, don't get fired up, because you hear the word mercenary and it does have bad feelign to it. I'm not trying to defend this guys here so much as trying to discuss that sometimes we don't know all there is to it here. Why I think we should talka bout this? I think PMCs are rising all the time, now it's good business and in the future,, who knows.

[Pekka]

And btw, they do security for companies that has their offices and workers in dangerous areas. I don't think you hire Securitas to do that job when you have the areas controlled by guerillas, drug lords and not strong gov enough to protect your business to prevent these guys from just messing with your business and making you pay some serious money for you to stay alive there.

[DaShi]

Why does this thread remind me of this http://www.realultimatepower.net/ ?

[Pekka]

Has nothing to do with those guys

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

"They'll kill for you, but they won't die for you."

[Pekka]

volunteers will die for you. The did, the still do and they continue doing it.

PMC loses men all the time. It was just noted, that Sandline lost men in Iraq.