What do mercenaries do for work when they get home?

[Raven]

Do we know how many of them are in Iraq and Afganistan? I bet not. Are they part of the "surge"? Can they be found in the Federal budget?(under "independent contractors" I would guess). Who do they report to? Who are they accountable to? Who are they loyal to? What do these people do when they get back to the US?

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scahill25jan25,0,7395303.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

I'm scaring myself with the possible answer to my last question.

Congress needs some hearings on this. Maybe Rummy can come back and explain why this is a good thing for America. E Gads!

[ThomWV]

1. Spend the money then go look for another job

and the wars go on ....

[crikkett]

2. Rummy never left

he just moved to an office outside the pentagon. he's an unpaid consultant now.

[MiniMe]

9. IIRC Rummy still has an office IN the Pentagon

[lazer47]

3. The become COPS

[Bucky]

22. I doubt many would take that 50% pay cut for a more rules-intensive job

They'll become cops when the market for mercs dries up. As long as there's overseas US corporations worried about terrorism, that market won't be drying up.

[Warren Stupidity]

4. False premise: they get home.

The plan is permanent war and a permanent private military force.

[Robbien]

5. Usually they stay with the firms and get sent back out to other

hot spots. Some are right now in Somalia. I hear guns for hire death squads are running rampant there right now.

[TomInTib]

6. They get old.

Like me.

I spent some time in Papua, terrorizing the locals for Freeport MacMoRan under the gentle guidance of CIA.

AIC was a guy named Cunningham (William C.). Last I heard he was head of the Board of Regents at University of Texas.

[Raven]

8. I hope you're right

and that they don't end up keeping us in line.

[TomInTib]

11. There are not enough of them.

There are far more of us and we are probably better armed.

In my little town of 5,000 there are at least 50 ex-Special Forces guys that I know of.

And we know the hills.

It would literally require an active force of several hundred mercs to have any real effect here.

[MADem]

7. They are not found in the budget. The money goes to a company in a big chunk

Let's say, Blackwater, or Halliburton, or what have you...in exchange for in-theater 'support services' be they housing, food service, protection, whatever. All that is spelled out in the contract.

But these people are NOT government employees. The interaction with the government is between the officers of the corporation and the military contracting officers.

A lot of them are just poor schmucks who saw an opportunity to make some good money fairly fast, and took it. They're saving their money hand over fist with a goal, to buy a house, a big rig, a farm, what have you.

[Retired AF Dem]

15. And the winner is...

you. Not very many civilian jobs needs ex spec-ops skills. I know many that have gone on one year contracts to buy a house that they couldnt otherwise afford working at low paying jobs after they left the military.

[Cerridwen]

10. Wackenhut...I'll go find a link.

link to their homepage.

Been around for decades. Any person who has met one of the Wackenhut "security" people always reports back how "spooky" they are. I guess they take seriously the "wack" in Wackenhut. They used to be the security for the NV Test Site. I'm pretty sure they're still around there. Wackenhut provides a lot of "security" and other services (Wackenhut Nuclear Services) for the federal government.

This is one option. I'm sure there are many others.

[Solo_in_MD]

12. Depends what you mean by mercs

Some here have claimed the the truck drivers and cafeteria workers are also mercs. Pretty silly in my estimation, but they are fervent in their position.

My take is those with civilian skills return to their occupation.

[alfredo]

13. One I knew became a mercenary recruiter and drug dealer.

He died in the eighties from an overdose.

[Fovea]

14. Henry V Act V, Scene I

Pistol:
" Well, bawd I'll turn,
And something lean to cutpurse of quick hand.
To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:
And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars,
And swear I got them in the Gallia wars. "


The main question is what is the equivelent of the lean blade?

Answer: .50 cal sniper rifle and glocks. and the purses they cut will be banks, stores, and high worth individuals. They are terrorizing them over there so they will be better at terrorizing us when they come home.

And for the less enterprizing, or rather more traumatized, we will be paying them for their service at entrance ramps, shopping malls, and subway stations for decades to come. It is going to be far far worse than Vietnam.

But the right wingers made sure queers can't get married, and when they win the lotto, no estate taxes! That is what the Bush privatizing revolution bought along with the systematic rotting of our infrastructure and the creation of a private mercenary military. They wanted a pretzeldent that wouldn't look down on them for being ignorant as dirt.

What they got was a chip and seal America, a mean drunk and a bunch of lawless thugs soon to be stealing home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran.

I hope they like what happens next.

[Warren Stupidity]

16. Good point. And oddly it raises another interesting angle.

Perhaps we are better off having them fighting over there than having to fight them here? Perhaps we have just been misinterpreting our righting friends about which 'them' they are talking about.

[Bucky]

17. Right after Katrina, some were "working security" on the streets of New Orleans

They do private security work, often for fat cat corporate CEOs who really don't need the security but like feeling The Power of being surrounded by heavily armed men. It makes them feel like players in the game (don't ask me "what game?" because I don't have the time to go into my theories about primate dominance displays).

They're also working in other regions of the world, doing for six figures a head what the army and Marines used to do for a low five figures ahead. Blackwater's biggest client is the US State Department, but they're funneled thru so many contracts and subcontracts that sometimes it's hard to see exactly who they're working for.

But it's not hard to see who they're voting for.

[High Plains]

18. They become police officers. Serve and protect, y'all.

Doesn't that thought make you feel better?

[Bucky]

19. A new merc makes $70-100k until he gets to the top tier (or hazard pay). A cop makes $35-60k.

I'm pretty sure it's cops who become mercs, not mercs who become cops. One big problem the Army is having is that the security contractors keep stealing all their best DIs and field NCOs. The work is softer and less boring and the pay is oodles better. Privatization is a real drain on our military's long term fighting ability.

[NightWatcher]

20. exactly, rural cops

ye haw

[leftofthedial]

21. they go back to the Jack in the Box

[aikoaiko]

23. Most of the guys I know go back to being computer techs, office jobs, and ac technicians.

They are just regular guys who once did a tour in the military, got an incredible temp job offer, go to some place and do heavy security guard work, return home and their regular jobs, and put a nice down payment on a house or invest in a business.

I'm sure some of the paid contractors are doing nefarious work, but most of them are just doing security guard work in a very dangerous place.

[NNN0LHI]

24. These firefighters got caught doing merc work while collecting their city pay. Nice scam

http://www.chicagoist.com/archives/2007/01/07/security_workers_introduced_to_rule_of_law.php

January 7, 2007

Security Workers Introduced to Rule of LawOn Wednesday it was discovered that an Orland Park firefighter was arrested for felony theft for falsely claiming he was fighting for the military in Iraq. Lawrence Masa was actually working for a private security firm in Iraq and was being paid quite well. During this time Masa made approximately $190,000 as a firefighter and $200,000 as a private security worker.

Yesterday, Steven Slawinski, a Lemont Firefighter, was accused of the same crime. Slawinski, a friend of Masa, is charged with Felony theft for falsely claiming he was fighting for the military in Iraq. Slawinski too was working at a private security firm, getting paid $27,000 from the Fire Department while in Iraq. Officials looked into Slawinksi's claims after they realized the relationship between the two and the timing of both men's return to work. Slawinski was making $63/hour as a trainer in Iraq.

Since the start of the Iraq war tens of thousands of private security workers have entered the country. With the ease these two had at falsely producing documents stating they were serving in the military, we assume this is much more of a widespread problem. This is just another addition to the slew of problems we face with private military contractors in Iraq.

[Liberal In Texas]

25. Look for another war. Watch the movie "The Dogs of War" with Christopher Walken

An oldie but a goodie.

[TahitiNut]

26. My second cousin is one of those mercs.

:blush: We (his family) love him but realize he's somewhere over the rainbow in his thinking. When he's working in the US, it's usually in a security job at some federal installation, like one of the DOE's nuclear sites. Training, advising directing the staffing and procedures for securing those sites involves some pretty dark kinds of thinking.