I want to be the first to say that I disapprove of Blackwater and all other Private Military Contractors. All jobs, whether its security escort or fighting insurgency should be left at the hands of U.S. Army Soldiers.

Take a look at this week's issue of Newsweek magazine.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek/

Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."

I feel that absolutely nothing can be achieved by debates on this subject until persons bite the bullet and stop using euphemisms such as PMCs, and call them mercenaries, which is what they are, as defined by any dictionary or reference work that you may care to choose.

If you wish to see my views you should search through past similar threads on this site.

Having said that, I will retire from this thread.

I can't believe such an event happened. And I can't believe the officer or NCO in charge of those soldiers complied with the mercs' demands to disarm and lie on the ground.

They're great.... More power to them!

Originally Posted by phoenix80

They're great.... More power to them!

Based on your logic, we should privatize all armed forces in the United States. Who needs the U.S. Army when we got Blackwater running the show.

Originally Posted by Red_Army

Based on your logic, we should privatize all armed forces in the United States. Who needs the U.S. Army when we got Blackwater running the show.

I dont know how you got to my logic from my post but then not necessarily, you let army do its job as well... AND also Just let the Contractors do their job they have signed contract for.

Now perhaps you can see why I withdrew Red_Army?

Well, that's not good to hear it. But at least, the contractors didn't shoot them.

The Blackwater are probably have bigger balls than the US Army has. Oops... Well, I guess the Blackwater have the poor leadership or something like that.

Originally Posted by Fox

Well, that's not good to hear it. But at least, the contractors didn't shoot them.

The Blackwater are probably have bigger balls than the US Army has. Oops... Well, I guess the Blackwater have the poor leadership or something like that.

To be honest I think its probably more a case of the troops showing more restraint and acceptance of law than the gun toting lunatics they ran into.

As far as I know, Blackwater is a mix of ex-special forces and well-equipped security guards. If you want your mercenaries to make progress, you take their kid gloves off and let them take an aggressive stance like Executive Outcomes.

I don't think we should use mercenaries. I have a feeling the US military's quality control is better than any private military company's.

And what these particular mercs did is absolutely unacceptable. They should be fired, literally.