Originally posted by: AndrewR
Originally posted by: Zebo
Originally posted by: jjzelinski
Originally posted by: Zebo
I would say no they don't. You don't have to pay the Mujahadeen anything, they fight for free and eat falafel bread and water almost exclusivly. No fancy medivacs, USO, 30 days paid vacation, etc either. If we had something worth fighting over I would too. We need to be getting away from this mercenary Army full of underachievers our pols can use and abuse and back to the basics defense full of people who want to be there for the right reasons (Defense). You don't do that by offering craddle to grave care and benefits. Because wages are so good in USA, Maybe you should provide your own weapon and body armor too. I guess that would sorta put a bit of a damper on all this globe trotting.
??
That was an odd post, Zebo. Exactly who are you attacking here? Even if our Army
was full of "under achieving mercenaries", would you really insist on assigning them the blame of bad policy decisions?
Perhaps I missed what must be huge amounts of sarcasm and hyperbole in your post...
Not sarcasm at all. My point was twofold.
a) With lavish bonuses and craddle to grave care we are attracting the wrong people by magnifying incentives that place mercenary values above patriotic values.
b) We make wars too easy to get into because mercenaries can stomach profiting from whatever conflict offensive or defensive in nature.
Ok, let me start off by saying that you're a dipsh!t with no idea about who is in the military nor do you apparently have any clue about military life in general. Would you have the government stop paying the military and just have us work for free? The reason we have the best military the world has ever seen is because there are incentives for intelligent people to stay in and become proficient at the jobs. If we go back to any semblance of conscription or rely on "patriotic values" (and the military has more patriotism per capita than any other segment of society), body counts will rise, and the military will be incapable of completing the tough missions. Wow, that's a brilliant idea. The US military works because it is composed of professionals, not conscripts who die foolishly.
Have you ever taken a look at the military pay scales? Enlisted folks don't make a great deal of money so I'm not entirely sure where you get this idea that their coffers are overflowing. Officers make a good salary, at least at the mid-grades, but that's a minority of the force and needed to keep those with marketable degrees and experience from bolting for higher paying jobs.
As for your idealistic view of the insurgents, many of the ones currently fighting in Iraq are doing so for money -- sounds like mercenary behavior to me. The Afghan Army has had trouble with desertions because the Taliban pays more. Sounds awfully mercenary there, too. Al Qaida pays very well, from what I've read, which is why their recruitment is so successful among the poor. Remember the suicide bombers in Israel? They used to be funded by Saddam, who gave their families huge payouts after the bombers killed themselves. Pull your head out of your @ss and try using some facts to bolster your idiotic arguments.
Incidentally, what's a "craddle"?
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