Mercenaries

[Scolar Visari]

With EA's Army of Two only a few days away here in the states it got me thinking about real life private military contractors. With all the controversy surrounding private contractors what do the members of the forum think about these people and the work they do?

 

[sammyfreak]

Killing people sucks.

That being said i think that making a buisness out of killing people makes it worse and from what reaches my ears mercs are known as "loose shooters". A real army can be held acountable and their main goal isent profit, so hopefully it means less civilian (and overall) casualties.

(They are also evil in videogames!)

 

[dehawaiiansupaman]

I don't think there's really anyone way of decribing them. From what I know they do things that can be considered way outside the rules of engagement and other times they fix the problems that the UN Security Council doesn't move on.

I personally I don't agree with any kind of hired gun type organizations; killing for money seems like a sick prospect to me.

 

[-Javelin-]

Killing people sucks.

Agreed^^^

Mercenaries are the only way politicians can keep their noses clean whilst playing in the mud.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

It brings money to the table. Contractors just do what they are good at.

 

[Colodomoko]

Mercinaries use to be kids with a bad life. Usually its from the death of your family. Next thing they know their hired thugs that do dirty work in illegal activity for money. Once you lose love and your belifs your born to kill. After you saw a thousand island stare you seen it all.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Mercinaries use to be kids with a bad life. Usually its from the death of your family. Next thing they know their hired thugs that do dirty work in illegal activity for money. Once you lose love and your belifs your born to kill. After you saw a thousand island stare you seen it all.

Not necessarily, that sounds a bit stereotypical. Has it happened? Sure. Is it always that way? No.

 

[Colodomoko]

Rob Inglis]

Mercinaries use to be kids with a bad life. Usually its from the death of your family. Next thing they know their hired thugs that do dirty work in illegal activity for money. Once you lose love and your belifs your born to kill. After you saw a thousand island stare you seen it all.

Not necessarily, that sounds a bit stereotypical. Has it happened? Sure. Is it always that way? No.

You haven't seen nothing yet, it's a long way down the road to boiling point.

 

[John Galt]

Wars mean money, big wars mean big money. Whenever you've got a niche you're going to find people shift to fill that niche in a manner most profitable to them. While killing isn't an attractive profession, I don't think killing on behalf of a nation is anymore noble than killing for money.

 

[Scolar Visari]

A lot of mercs are actually veterans of different militaries who who made their career out of soldiering but wanted something besides a pat on the back for their service. Technically the term merc is outdated as being a merc is illegal( mercs fight for countries with standing armies). Now P.M.C is the correct term as they usually do protection of resources, structures or people. P.M.Cs can only act as a fighting force for countries with no standing army. In the past mercenaries have been able to deal with situations that the UN failed to control. As a promotional video for Army of Two says " You can just keep making war and I'll just keep making money."

 

[Cougers]

Mercenaries is good, it kind of reminds me of Rambo a bit.
Speaking of Rambo, has anyone seen the movie?
I feel, there needs to be a game based on that movie, hopefully
make it as gory, and more fun, with other missions!
Till' then, i'm also looking forward to Mercenaries 2

 

[Geoffrey42]

To all of those saying that killing for money = bad, I ask, what exactly is it that you think your nation's armed forces do?

Coming from the US, I can say that while some people join the military to "do their duty" and "serve their country", many others join because it is a good job, and a better one than they can attain otherwise. A job, for which they are paid, and during which they are sometimes asked to kill people.

In the case of contractors, along the lines of what John Galt mentioned above, they are filling a niche. There's a certain point where people become very good at what they do. Frequently, in the military, if you become very good at what you do, you either graduate to a desk job, or you get stuck at your salary level so you can play in the dirt and do what you're good at, instead of writing supply requisitions. At that point, is the risk that you're taking in performing your duties worth it at that pay-scale? Maybe "serving your country" isn't providing enough additional worth to keep you going. So, you exit the service, and you take your skills to a private company, that will pay you an amount commensurate with your level of skill, and your level of risk. Market forces at work.

One thing I will say: I'm not against contractors existing, or doing what they do, but I would prefer if, when the US Gov't engages their services, they exert more oversight. If the only reason you're hiring them is that they can get things done due to lax rules, then maybe what you're trying to do isn't exactly on the up-and-up.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

I don't really have much of an opinion any which way. They're a major part of humanity's oldest and most horrible tradition.

Literally since the first recorded battle, mercenaries have been on the field in one form or another. The Egyptians, the Romans and basically all the modern European nations at one time or another employed mercenaries to do some (if not all) of their fighting. What it generally comes down to is the need for specific talents or straight up manpower and how much it is worth for a nation.

Mercenaries generally have a bad rap because they're viewed as a third party to a conflict that are in it just to earn cash. The Hessian Mercenaries during the American Revolutionary War are a good example of this, they're despised because they're not viewed as anyone with a vested interest beyond making money. They only really went out of fashion in the last two hundred years, when vast standing conscript armies have become the norm.

In more recent times, mercenaries haven't exactly earned a great reputation, mostly because of things that have occurred in Africa. European mercenaries running around involving themselves in local conflicts (that were almost universally messy) in Angola, Nigeria and the Congo gave them an especially bad rap. It looked like, to the world, white guys being paid to go to Africa to kill people there (which is largely true).

They certainly weren't all bad, though. In Sierra Leone mercenaries working for their government helped fight some particularly brutal revolutionaries (the type that take limbs from innocent people, employ child soldiers, that kind of thing). In Iraq now there are mercenaries, "Private Military Contractors" they're generally called, but they essentially serve the same function, although they generally don't serve direct combat functions, their jobs and the fact that they're armed usually means that they do get into confrontations.

I don't feel the profession is all bad, or all good. They serve a function of warfare that is often needed by nations. I don't think they are, or should be respected as much as a rank and file soldier who volunteered to serve his country, and does so generally for considerably less pay than a hired outside mercenary.

 

[sammyfreak]

To all of those saying that killing for money = bad, I ask, what exactly is it that you think your nation's armed forces do?

Coming from the US, I can say that while some people join the military to "do their duty" and "serve their country", many others join because it is a good job, and a better one than they can attain otherwise. A job, for which they are paid, and during which they are sometimes asked to kill people.

While im sure there are quite a few people in the army for the money im quite sure the organisation doesnt exist for profit.

 

[John Galt]

No? Well, they exist to protect the people, and without the people, how are their employers (the gov't) going to make any money? It's an insurance policy against foreign incursion, and therefore, for profit.

More agressive armies tend to conquer things too. Not just for glory, but for more resources and land, ie: profit. It's kind of amazing how much human society has been influenced by money really. I feel that it has changed us for the better in fact.

 

[PurpleRain]

Mercenaries=vigilantes. The end.

Not really. If a bady hired you to kill someone good for big $$$ that doesn't make you a vigilante in the least bit. It makes you a greedy arsehole.

 

[GrowlersAtSea]

Vigilantes practice their own brand of justice to enforce laws that they're not supposed to to begin with.

Traditionally mercenaries are hired by governments (the people who make laws) to help carry out their wars. So most mercenaries wouldn't be considered vigilantes (if any can) since they act as agents of the state and are payed to do so. The ones that are employed by militias or revolutionaries it's more a sordid affair, but since they're generally not acting on their own and following orders from those up above, vigilante I don't think would be an accurate term, really.