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Not sure if your post was sarcastic, but felt I should respond.
It was mainly just my personal feelings on the matter sprinkled with facetious under tones.

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-Do they really get the "Real Work" done? All they do is guard diplomats and government representatives that go around.
They do WAY more than that. In addition to that they get all of the work where chance for failure or significant losses is too high. So all of those leader-types who are too well guarded and need to be taken out, all of those supply convoys that have snots loads of ambush points to pass through. Also they get some of those great Black Ops missions, where our goverment needs that extra layer of anonimity. They basically get anything that's considered close to suicide but regardless the job still needs to get done.

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-There is no draft, so every soldier that signs up knows that they are likely going to be going over there. Plus the vast majority of the Private contractors are ex-military, which means that we would be out the training costs, their prior salary, and then the deposit. Thats poor business planning.
Soldiers of Fortune say yes or no on a per contract basis. They get paid every mission, and agree to it or stay home. Yes a vast majority of them are ex-military, but from what I understand they rarely end up using much aside from basic training and go to other "specialty programs" for less ethical tactics that make them more effective than our military. It's actually good business if you think aboutit; why should tax payers flip the schooling bill for what is largely a private industry?


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-Nothing wrong with supporting the troops. They do what they are ordered. Say whatever you want about the people in charge but the troops are just doing their jobs.
I'm just saying I find the yellow ribbons and support our troops slogans to be quite annoying. It's like wearing a pink ribbon to upport breast cancer, what the heck does it actually do? If you want to support some troops, buy some dragon scale vests and MK-9's and ship them over to the soldiers of your choice. I've yet to hear a single soldier tell the story about how they were really in a tactical jam and were about to all die, until all those yellow ribbons back home came through and saved them. It's a pointless endeavor intended to instill warm goody goody feelings and further political agendas upon a generally ignorant public.

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as soon as one of them gets captured we have "American Civilian being held hostage in (insert country here)" on every news channel. Also if they are out of Uniform (since they are contractors) and it is a state of war, then instead of POWs, they are spys and can be executed. That will go over with the American Public.
Fine print on every independent defense contract makes it abundantly clear that the answer is always execution as a spy/terrorist/assasin etc. Private Defense Contractors aren't something new, in fact it's an industry that has existed in the states longer then we've had an army. What makes you think the American Public will jump up in outrage if they haven't done so over the last three centuries? Out of site out of mind is the general rule.

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Derailing anecdote: when I was in high school, I, like many others, kept getting calls from recruiters.
Yea, I got those calls all the time too, back in highschool. The standard sales pitch as I remember it was you'll get in the best shape of your life, we'll pay for your college education, and you'll spend the next 4 years of your life with free room and board in the states on a military base somewhere.