DescentBB

Many might recall soldiers-for-hire fought against Americans in the Revolutionary War. Mercenaries. Apparently the Dems seem to feel they've found an *issue* to exploit in Iraq ever since the four men killed and mutilated in Fallujah were revealed to be civilian *security contractors*. The mercs are mostly retired special forces guys (both American and other nationalities) extending their military careers by doing what they do best for what I would consider a more reasonable wage than the US government pays your average dogface. The Dems are making it an issue because they say mercenaries:

-are not accountable to the normal chain of US command.
-are meant to make the war more palatable to the American public.
-are overpaid and a burden to US taxpayers.

In many ways this is simply more of the ghoulish exploitation of the dead that the media used to great effect during Vietnam. People die in wars and I don't know why certain parties think the rest of us don't know that. The press has been trying desperately to play up the *body count* game, to film funerals and to show images of caskets rolling off the returning transport planes. So far they have been banned from doing so, rightfully in my mind, because they have little actual sympathy for the fallen, are intrusive to the families of the dead and are more interested in establishing a 24/7 *death channel* to erode public support for the war.

The Dems are trying to claim these men and women are the equivalent to *private armies* when really all they are doing is mostly protecting convoys, fixed installations like oil facilities, and companies and important personnel (Bremer, himself, is currently protected by private security guards). None of these contractors are going into battle unless fired upon first. Their role is defensive.

By trying to stop the use of mercenaries/security contractors, I believe it is an end-run to try to have more enlisted soldiers as casualties to make it more personal to the American public. They want more of the dead to be young men and women from hometowns who were just trying to get an education from the GI Bill. For the media it would be a bonanza of morbidity. There's never a shortage of grieving families who will question and lash out about why their sons/daughters died in a far-off war. After all, one can't pretend to be the *caring* media if the folks who are getting injured and killed are there by their own choice and whose families will not lash out at Bush's policies.

What do you think?

Why are they on the government payroll? Is the US hiring these companies to protect convoys? Where are the US soldiers protecting convoys?

Some are, some aren't. Anyone can hire a merc. The US government, I believe, is using them mostly in capacities where it feels it's own soldiers would be sidelined and taken out of offensive manuevers, as well as in positions (like protecting supply trucks) where they are at greater risk of ambush. The new US military is all about being highly mobile. But someone still has to sit on the conquered ground so the ground isn't lost or retaken after the military has pushed forward. That's where, I believe, most of the US-paid mercs are concentrated; in supply protection and at fixed assets like government buildings, oil pipelines, etc.

Ok I can agree to that. But I also agree to the fact that they should not be getting the higher salary if they are doing a US soldier's work. Either pay the soldier the same amount, (are they not worth it?), or drop the salary on the Mercs.

Well, the pro-merc argument there is US soldiers are on the clock 24/7, mercs are only brought on payroll when needed and only paid for the hours they are on duty. The other thing is mercs are intentionally placed in high-risk situations whereas the US military does what it can to reduce the threats to it's own enlisted personnel. Case in point is protecting the supply trucks. My guess is that has to be some of the most hazardous duty one can pull. You're basically a sitting duck (or a rolling duck waiting to hit a mine in the road) with practically no back up close enough to come to the rescue if things get messy.

btw, is the poll borken or something? I had a little trouble with it (it wouldn't accept a third *no opinion* option for some reason). I notice no one else has voted but there's been plenty of views.

The use of mercs seems rational to me.

If someone really, really wants to go over to Iraq - then let them. It sure as hell beats opening a draft and taking people like me away from college to go participate in a war I don't formally endorse.

As for payment, this is a problem? Look, when NBA star Kobe Bryant pulls $20 million for putting an orange ball through a hoop, don't you think every soldier across the board really ought to be paid more because they are thrown right into harm's way and can actually get shot and killed? This is just a symptom of society - we have our priorities mixed up and it's been that way for years.

And as for the mercs being "outside the bounds," this is a bad thing? If nothing else, these halfwits in Fallujah seem to have a penchant for praying on us being the "good guys" and knowing that we won't resort to excessive violence just because they give it. Kind of like the scenario where the superhero must choose between the train headed for the cliff, or capturing the villain who put it there, we will always choose the train. We could drop the bomb on them and vaporize the whole city and be done with this, but we won't. They pray on that detail.

But sometimes a wildcard element is good every now and then. Someone bombed a mosque and killed a rogue cleric? That wasn't our problem - it was that merc.

BTW: The subject of the post completely eludes me. The Hessians?

Hessians were german mercs during the war of independence.

Of note, they were orignally serving the british, feared by the americans as undefeatable... until Washington beat them. then they switched sides.

Interesting find. A letter from one of the mercs of Blackwater:

* * *

Thank you all for your continued support of me (even though I donâ??t usually write back) and my patriotic family at home. I am healthy and looking forward to a couple weeks with [family] in a safe foreign country sometime next month.

In the wake of the tragic death and disgusting desecration of the remains of our comrades from Blackwater, I will spend my half day off today answering some of your questions ... As you may or may not know I am not on active duty as [Special Forces] this year. For the last 6 months, I have been one of the government contractors you may have heard about in the news operating in Iraq. I work with many other contractors who, like me, are on Authorized Absence (or discharged) from either Special Forces, Marine Recon, SEAL Teams, etc.

Old ways die hard among thugs. And pure thuggery is what has ruled Iraq for more than 10 years before Saddam Hussain under Al-Bakir. There are a few thugs standing in the wings around here trying to vie for power because thatâ??s all they know. It doesnâ??t matter what variation on Islam they are spoutingâ?¦they are nothing more than mob bosses and the Iraqi people, in general are tired of it. Add some out-of-country terrorists to the mix and an American liberal media in an election year and these thugs think they are going to win. I pray American voters see that we must finish this one the right way. If we walk away now, we will be responsible for a lot more than the 2 million Cambodians and every last Montainyard that was murdered the year after we abandoned Indochina. Here is the reality I see everyday.

The Iraqi people as a wholeâ?¦love us. You read it rightâ?¦love us. Terrorists may hate us and radicals in different ethnic groups within Iraq may hate each otherâ?¦but in general, the common Iraqi people, Shias, Sunis, Kurds, Chaldeans, Turkomen, all have one thing in commonâ?¦For one instant in time, they have hope for their future and the future of their childrenâ?¦and that hope is centered around one group of foreignersâ?¦you guessed itâ?¦Americansâ?¦the good old USA.

And there are dozens of coalition forces who help usâ?¦young military people from most of the free countries in the world are hereâ?¦and willing to lay down their lives because America has led the way in spreading the good news of freedom and democracy to the oldest land on Earth. And we are all helping to train Iraqis to protect themselves with sound moral and ethical proceduresâ?¦ And we know that teaching adults is importantâ?¦But educating children is the keyâ?¦So there is a lot of money going to rebuilding schools in Iraq and getting rural children to attend for the first time in history.

Many of you have asked about what our response to the recent atrocity should or will be. Here is my take on itâ?¦

Of all the areas to commit random acts of violence and inhumanity to Americans in, Fallujah was the wrong place for one simple reason. It is now controlled by the United States Marine Corps which is just large enough and just nimble enough and certainly motivated enough to slog it out door to door until every last criminal (caught on tape last week) is apprehended along with his â??Imamâ?