[huldah1776]

Read that Trump wants to use more "contractors." I was wondering what Freepers think about them. Being under the direction of the [chaotic] State Dept or any other gov dept besides the DOD seems like a pretty open scenario. Who establishes their ROE?

I read their story a while back and I think the 30 years was unjust. I have anxiety thinking about going shopping or driving thru a city on the expressway let along being in Baghdad.

I did search for other sources and read the NY slimes point of view so if you want your blood pressure to go up here is the link. Always good to know what the other end of the bell curve is spewing. Same smelly crud I read in my social psychology text.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/world/middleeast/blackwater-contractors-iraq-sentences.html

[huldah1776]

Oh, had to copy the title but 31 were wounded or killed in total. Fourteen were killed. Posting a comment at source now.

[vooch]

Using Mercs is a signal that the war is not supported by the people.

[Liaison]

Just Diving in Baghdad from points A to B was a combat mission. I drove with a guy from New York and he said driving in NY was a primer for driving in Baghdad. The traffic heavy especially at intersections and circles as there were no working traffic lights and every one was scared that someone was going to pop up and attack you. I was in a fender bender with my Sargent driving the Iraqis in the car got out but got quickly back in as we brandished our rifles and pistols. I regret the firefight indecent happening to them but I under stand the tension of the situation.

This team was driving ambassador brenner when something spooked the gunner. He made a mistake not focusing the fire and the rest followed. I don't remember the experience of that gunner but the range of time for the team was few years in military service to retired Seals and SAS. I hung with the a few times when they were off duty.

I don't know if they time he's serving is just but I hope that his lawyers can find a way to get him a better deal

[binreadin]

What we are doing now isn’t working. Maybe it’s time to try a variation of the proposal put forth by Erik Prince. He’s right about the short-term deployments of masses of 22 year-olds being a problem.

[Revolutionary]

I am all for combat contractors. The military should be breaking things and contractors should be used as follow on to provide area security. The military takes the ground and the contractors hold the ground. The later will be done more and more by robotics.

I am tired of the civilians going after the people that put themselves in harm’s way. It is the Fog of War. Our people are a million times more valuable than the ROE they are saddled with.

[antidisestablishment]

Our forces are the “contractors” in most of the Middle East. We are policing opium fields, providing security for Chinese rare earth mines in Afghanistan, and fighting proxy wars for our “Allies”, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The difference used to be that mercs were only backed by the company, while conventional forces had the country’s support.

Today, many a traditional soldier finds himself prosecuted by the very country that sent him for doing the job asked. Regrettably, I would trust “the company” over our military leadership—at least I know they follow a code of ethics and are held accountable beyond our courts of dubious intent.

[JudgemAll]

Black Water never lost the life of a single client.

Unlike the FBI and NSA which seem incapable of stopping terror attacks and murders of witnesses against Hillary...

This was a revenge and smear job on Black Water imo

[vooch]

“..I read their story a while back and I think the 30 years was unjust. I have anxiety thinking about going shopping or driving thru a city on the expressway let along being in Baghdad...”

the difference is the mercs signed up for the gig