A Little Something I Learned the Other Day.

[P3nT4gR4m]

It strikes me that the american approach to warfare was to plough so much cash into personnel and hardware that they had no money left to invest in tacticians.

I mean really - Iraq will take a huge number of centuries and billions of dollars in mechanical and flesh-based assets to resolve - it's a total no-brainer but somehow the great US strategic planners kinda completely dropped the ball on that one.

Either the companies who's profits rely on the supply of flesh and machines have way too much say in the decision making process or you people really are as fucking stupid as the rest of the world seems to think you are.

go figure

[Cain]

I'd tend to agree, as much as it is an American stereotype in the Arab world.  The latest US counterinsurgency manual is laughable, its just trying to apply hold and clear (a strategy devised for rural insurgencies) to an urban setting.  Which doesn't work.  All it does is fuck with the normal economic workings of a city, which is exactly what the enemy wants.

Plus, war requires a set political objective.  What's the political objective in Iraq?  Make it no longer capable of posing a threat to US interests?  Whoops, done that (could have done that without expending any military resources).  Install a democratic government?  Whoops, done that.  Drive around aimlessly in circles until an insurgent finds a way around the radio-jamming frequency and explodes the IED into a vehicle?  Done that (for the past 2 years).  Consistently backstab each major faction in Iraq and undermine the central government by backing tribal militias in a short term attempt to stem casualty rates and claim the surge is working, whereas in fact all that's happening is a long term sapping of the Iraqi national government's authority which will inevitably cause Iraq, as a viable state, to collapse, creating a new Afghanistan?  Well, that would be the current strategy.

[stromcrow]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Halliburton and Blackwater make a lot of money in this war? Classical win-win situation.

[Pope Lecherous]

A wounded soldier has his treatment covered by the military, and if he's lucky he also receives disability payments (assuming he's wounded beyond full recovery, which happens disturbingly often). You obviously don't understand how the military works; a front-line soldier does not stay on as a trainer for other soldiers, he just gets a medical discharge. Only high-ranking officers have a good chance of staying on the military payroll after they cease to be deployable.

If your injury is that bad you can still be of use and be reassigned to a non-deployable unit.  Not the majority of people get discharged.  Most people get their MOS reassigned to some admin job or refuse to do that and just accept discharge orders and collect their disability.  But then again what do i know?  You pretty much have to lose a limb to become useless.  You can receive disability for any chronic injury that has been documented in your medical record enough, each ailment is given a percentage value towards the total amount of disability you collect. psychiatric casualties are a different story though.

[Pope Lecherous]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Halliburton and Blackwater make a lot of money in this war? Classical win-win situation.

Blackwater should be the fuck out of iraq.  They get in the way of the Marine Corps and Army, cause to many problems, are overpaid and undertrained.

[Cramulus]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Halliburton and Blackwater make a lot of money in this war? Classical win-win situation.

Blackwater should be the fuck out of iraq.  They get in the way of the Marine Corps and Army, cause to many problems, are overpaid and undertrained.

let's not forget that they answer to no one and there seems to be no one legally responsible for disciplining them if stuff gets out of hand.

They can't be privately sued because they're part of the "total force"
and they can't be tried by the military because they're private contractors.

Mercenary free-for-all!

[stromcrow]

Wait, are you saying Blackwater is a militant discordian cabal that doesn't respect the state, ignores all rules and just spreads destructive chaos?

[Nast]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Halliburton and Blackwater make a lot of money in this war? Classical win-win situation.

Blackwater should be the fuck out of iraq.  They get in the way of the Marine Corps and Army, cause to many problems, are overpaid and undertrained.

I personally don't care for them because they kill people.
But apparently that's war.

[Cain]

Merc's are the wave of the future.  That's what happens when the bottom line becomes your guiding philosophy.  They are cheaper than training and supporting more US troops, less politically dangerous than instituting a draft and, unlike mercenaries of the past, unlikely to switch to the other side for the promise of a better contract (which strictly speaking makes them auxilaries, and also loses them +50,000 cool points for the sheer possibility of it).

Also, aside their 'work' in Iraq, they do have a good track record of defending shit.  Usually people whose own employees want to gut, or angry masses upset at a huge fucking oil refinery they get no benefits from, but you can't have everything.  However, according to the statistics, their casualty rate is no better or worse than the US military, when it comes to civilian deaths.

[Pope Lecherous]

Merc's are the wave of the future.  That's what happens when the bottom line becomes your guiding philosophy.  They are cheaper than training and supporting more US troops, less politically dangerous than instituting a draft and, unlike mercenaries of the past, unlikely to switch to the other side for the promise of a better contract (which strictly speaking makes them auxilaries, and also loses them +50,000 cool points for the sheer possibility of it).

I do like the concept of mercenaries in iraq, but their employment should be limited to guerilla warfare and psyops.  Remember the Americans that got hung on that bridge?  Blackwater caused that.  They made that city hostile towards us because they refused to listen to a General in the Marine Corps.   He told them not to go into that area, but blackwater they think they know what the fuck is going on.  The type of person in blackwater is either someone that couldnt make it in the infantry and want to be fuckin Ricky Recon, or (rarely) they do know whats up and are highly skilled and seek to profit big time as a Private contractor.

[Random Probability]

Merc's are the wave of the future.  That's what happens when the bottom line becomes your guiding philosophy.  They are cheaper than training and supporting more US troops, less politically dangerous than instituting a draft and, unlike mercenaries of the past, unlikely to switch to the other side for the promise of a better contract (which strictly speaking makes them auxilaries, and also loses them +50,000 cool points for the sheer possibility of it).

I do like the concept of mercenaries in iraq, but their employment should be limited to guerilla warfare and psyops.  Remember the Americans that got hung on that bridge?  Blackwater caused that.  They made that city hostile towards us because they refused to listen to a General in the Marine Corps.   He told them not to go into that area, but blackwater they think they know what the fuck is going on.  The type of person in blackwater is either someone that couldnt make it in the infantry and want to be fuckin Ricky Recon, or (rarely) they do know whats up and are highly skilled and seek to profit big time as a Private contractor.

Another part of it is force retention, and this goes hand-in-hand with avoiding another draft.  Not only is it cheaper to hire guns but the government is cashing in on the training they've already given these guys.  They aren't just hiring shooters, though.  Check out DoD job opportunities in Iraq.  They want all MOS's and they're offering to pay at least two to three times what those same jobs would here in the states.

I'm pretty sure the masterminds behind Blackwater are good buddies with the Ranger cunts who took over when the Marines (sensibly) left Somalia.  Now they get to play "Blackhawk Down" with a whole fucking country.  It's just another case of people who know enough to be dangerous and are in a position to prove it.