They should have loaned you some BDU pants, Marc. Also, I always thought "purse carry" was when one used the carry handle on the upper (if present). I'd have called your style "dead fish carry".

ObOnTopic: Glad to hear Blackwater were on their game for you visitors. Very very hard to tell what happens "over there" and why. Non-trauma-related example: there was reported to be a strong tendency for some of the early / deep USan operators in Afghanistan to grow beards -- in some cases, mullah-long. Were they going native, or were they winning hearts and minds? Hard to say.

Marc,
Despite all the "kool-aid" you've profesed to have ingested in the last few months, this post redeems all!
I'll even forgive you for pulling "the one" lever in November.
Reads good, but we both know it's a lie.
Mike

Mike - ??

Curious - what's a lie?

A.L.

"Blackwater is a Defense 2.0 company - finding half-million dollar solutions to what have traditionally been ten-million dollar problems. That's something we need a lot more of, not less."

As a fan of military Civil Affairs, I have to ask: can we generate same or better "half-million dollar solutions" within the military establishment or does the nature of the miltary mean that we always have to outsource? If can't, why not?

Here's what Machiavelli would say:

Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious, and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy. The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe; which I should have little trouble to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries, and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet when the foreigners came they showed what they were.

As an atheist, "atheist" is really embarrassing in his pitiful, unreasoned opinions.

Blackwater's huge presence in hot areas, their many losses of operators, and the source of their personnel all vitiate the advice from The Prince. There's a very big difference between the quality of service you get when hiring random mercenaries under the leadership of a foreigner and that of a military contractor serving his own country using elite veterans of that country's military. The ample motivation for those contractors in the current conflict is rather helpful as well - the jihadis have been killing American servicemen for 3 decades and only now is th US starting to hit back. Blackwater lets retired operaors get their chance to settle scores and fight one of the 2 perfect enemies.

As to the inability of the military to have this capability in house? Firstly it's because they're a bureaucracy, and you don't see any bureaucratic organization doing this. It's Blackwater, not Lockheed, General Dynamics, or Boeing. Secondly it's because of the ponderousness of Congressional meddling - 2 committees with a total of 535 members (plus staff), many of whom don't believe in the existence of a military, make it shocking that the military works at all, nevermind being entrepreneurial and nimble enough to do what Blackwater does. Then there's the constant churn of responsibility you see in the military...

I think atheist missed the key point in his Machiavelli quote:

Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe...

He was speaking to the contemporary practice of a state solely using paid mercenaries as its armed forces, instead of having a standing army or conscripting a force from the populace. The US, on the other hand, is obviously not relying on outside firms for their main source of military might and/or force projection, as that job is almost entirely handled by our professional military.

I would agree with Machiavelli that total reliance is dangerous, and as such outsourcing should never fully take the place of our existing Armed Forces. (YMMV if you're a micro-state, I suppose.) But augmenting our forces with paid contractors seems to be a good solution for the problem space, especially if you can use highly professional firms like AL portrays Blackwater to be.

But augmenting our forces with paid contractors seems to be a good solution for the problem space, especially if you can use highly professional firms like AL portrays Blackwater to be.

Interesting.

To me, the concept of even a partially corporatized military seems fraught with danger, and unlikely to truly aid in national security.

I'd like to see some argumentation behind the opinion that:

even a partially corporatized military seems fraught with danger, and unlikely to truly aid in national security.

Not rejecting it out of hand, but considering mercenaries have been around almost as long as standing armies have, I don't see a prima facie case for your fears. (Assuming the end line "quality of product" remains consistent.)

I'd even go so far as to say "partially corporatized" may be a bit of an exaggeration; I don't believe any private contractors are a part of the regular composition of the Armed Forces. Instead they're brought on for limited engagements, for specific tasks, and are released once the contract expires. I'm too busy to look it up right now, but I suspect the ratio of Blackwater personnel in Iraq+Afghanistan to US Armed Forces personnel would be very small.

Oh, I get. Mr. Marc Danziger is carrying his AR-15 in the manner of Neville Chamberlain with an umbrella to not get gun lube on his fancy shoes and suit pants, owing to United Airlines being unable to do a simple thing like give him back his checked bag at the end of a flight. I first thought it was some critique of Blackwater being lax on training candidates about gun handling. Sorry to be slow on the uptake.

His checked bag that he probably paid a surcharge for, yes. :)