Considering the attitudes of many on the right who dismiss our soldier’s situation due to their status as volunteers, maybe we’re better off with a mercenary Army. We’d be a little farther along the empire-collapse curve than I’d like, but…
Ted Koppel: Time for U.S. to Form an “Army of Mercenaries”?
Little known to the American public, there are some 50,000 private contractors in Iraq, providing support for the U.S. military, among other activities. So why not go all the way, hints Ted Koppel in a New York Times op-ed on Monday, and form a real “mercenary army”?
Such a move involving what he calls “latter-day Hessians” would represent, he writes, “the inevitable response of a market economy to a host of seemingly intractable public policy and security problems.”
The issue is raised by our “over-extended military” and inability of the United Nations to form adequate peace forces. Meanwhile, Americans business interests grow ever more active abroad in dangerous spots.
The biggest problem is that our military isn’t supposed to be used this way in the first place.
I think this is a great idea, and an example of the kind of original thinking that’s needed to solve this problem.
Putting a security force in place that isn’t made up of Americans, but is also not made up of will-not-shoot UN target dummies, will present the “insurgents” to the Iraqis for what they really are: Terrorists.
Hell, this idea is so good, I’ll even ignore the inaccurate “over-extended military” comment.
I’ll second that, its always a bad sign when the military becomes a police force.
“Dismiss?” How arrogant and full of it are you? Whatever point you might have is lost behind your bullshit opening “statement” (also known as flamebait).
Perhaps when can cut down on the cost of mercenaries by quartering them in homes.
On a more serious note, I believe that is why US military is training Iraqis for security and trying to shift the burden. Although I wish it would happen alot sooner.
We can ameliorate the immigration problem by following the French example of a “American Foreign Legion” under which foreign nationals can be assured US citizenship by completing a 5 year stint in our mercenary army.
Jim
#4. “I don’t dismiss our soldiers at all, and feel what they are going through now to be a tragedy.”
Smartalix, everyone plays their role according to the Game. The rules are known, or should be known. Soldiers fight in the name of war. War! Once it is declared war it doesn’t matter whether it is justified or not to a soldier. They have taken the role of a soldier who risks life in that war. Justification of a war is not up to a soldier, it is up to Congress and the people. But, remember, ultimately it is the forces that play on someone that determines which way they will move. After, 9/11 even Congressmen who were opposed to a war could not object because it would have cost them an election because the majority of Americans were blood-thirsty to kill the “enemy”. You see, it doesn’t even matter if 9/11 was an inside job. That is up to the media and investigative reporters. Everyone plays a role. The balance of power weighs toward what a person’s interest is and what opposing forces there are. Your role Smartalix is to play the bleeding-heart citizen who is looking out for our soldiers. But you do so in words only. I do too. If you want to make a real difference then go to the nearest recruiting booths and offer young men who are looking for a military job another opportunity. Offer them a job. The rules have been established. Stop fighting the rules, aka The Matrix. USE The Matrix.
1. Screw mercenaries; use robots. Lucas had the right idea; kill’em by the millions and nobody’s feelings are hurt.
2. Our armed forces are deployed abroad to protect our interests, as in the Barbary Pirates thing, not to bulldoze other countries to the ground so that “American Interests” are the only survivors.
Politicians are dumb. They are there because they have inferiority complexes. They have no real intelligent ideas.
I propose one. Let’s make the U.S. armed forces an all-volunteer Mexican military. We would provide them with American citizenship if they served our military for ten years. In the mean time they would have a job that pays them well in which they could support their families back home in Mexico, they would learn skills including English, it would stop illegal immigrants from crossing our borders because recruitment stations would be set in Mexican territory and the U.S. government could offer them better pay and benefits and real hope more than any of the illegal jobs that they now employ. It would also make American families shove the burden of war deaths to “others”. One drawback would be that the U.S. could have an army of 100,000,000 WILLING soldiers which would make waging war a CONQUERING incentive.
The Halliburton mercenaries are already there. Doing the less dangerous jobs for 4 times the pay as the military. Having the whole military privitized is one way to build up the military industrial complex to have even more control of American policy.
The mercenaries have no military law or local laws. They can kill without any kind of pesky oversight. One of the guys in the Abu Gihrib pictures was a Halliburton mercenary. He will never have to face any kind of judge for what he has done.
(Smartalix, you many not want to read the following. It will shatter your belief that I’m a Bush lackey, rendering your only counterpoint in the Cage useless.)
#5. I’ve come to believe that the “training Iraqi security forces” line is a farse, since we only hear of occasional attacks “using Iraqi security forces”. In other words, the guys signing up for this group are either part of the insurgency or too dumb to run from an explosion (which would also make them part of the insurgency).
We need a plan… anything… to get the hell out of Dodge. I realize that there will be some sort of U.S. presence in Iraq for a long time… as there is in Germany and Japan. We just need to get out of the role of being police. We can’t do it. We were poor at it after WW2 and we’re worse at it now.
Paying someone off to clean up our mess isn’t only the right thing to do, it’s the American way. And it will thin the NRA herd, too.
“… inability of the United Nations to form adequate peace forces”
This is such an idiotic statement. Maybe that’s because the UN doesn’t own any forces.
The UN is is totally useless without its member nations being willing to play along.
The upcoming PS3 game “Metal Gear Solid 4” is based on this premise- it’s a future world where much of American military might is in the form of private military contractors.
It’s not too much of a spolier to say, things go badly.
It’s evident that not many former, current, and retired military personnel do not visit this board very often. There are a few of us, but the ignorance of the “masses” is blatant.
The problem with mercenaries is that you pay them to start fighting, and then if you aren’t careful you have to pay them to STOP fighting too.
Rearm the Pinkertons?
Davids post about a Foreign Legion of illegal immigrants vying for citizenship made me think.
Im a US Citizen Born and raised here to Mexican American Parents(who came mixed Legal and illeagly mind you but are both now citizens) so i know the national character of Mexicos people and i will say this they will probaly step up to the plate and do a fine job and with excellent combat training and discpline they would do a great job except beisdes kicking spains and Frances Ass they havent had a good track record in war since both nations where weak at the time of war and they lost to the US in 1845.
Also Mexico is unusally full of bandits,thives,drug runners, and genral criminals and people of low character while every army has people like this in their ranks a Army composed of Mexicans in a foreign country is sure to do more than their share of looting. Alos mexico is EXTREMELY corrupt you would really need to train officers well or just have American Military do the Command strucutre in the lower command ranks of course i have no military expertise so this is purely conjecture on my knowledge of mexicos culture and people
Of course, we could always use the United States Special Redneck Forces. Arm them with shotguns and tell them that the terrorists are vegetarians, don’t like pickup trucks or country music, and taste just like chicken. Then, load each of them with a 6-pack of beer and a couple tons of ketchup, and send them out to do their business for FREE!!!! Illegals will also do the trick if you offer each of them loads of smuggled or stolen weapons, $5 an hour for pay, and lots of dope.
Seriously, our military is being stretched beyond it’s limits. They are being stationed practically everywhere on Earth. They are required to “liberate” Iraq, Afganistan, and probably Iran. Historically, negative media coverage about some other country is an omen of future conflict. There is the stress of being away from their families, risking their lives, not getting enough sleep, and being forced to kill. In addition, I heard on the news that the soldiers are having trouble fighting because the suffer from our nation’s undeniable obesety epidemic. Also, the women often have to take time off because they get pregnant. By the time our troops get back home, they’re in bad shape, physically, mentally, and emotionally. All of these wars will likely result in reinstating the draft.
Too bad nobody else tries to help “save the world!” Israel, if you are being threatened by Iran, you try to handle it first.