Quote Originally Posted by Centurion1 View Post
The future and recent past of war revolves around fighting insurgencies.
As I said before Mercs will only lead to more asymmetric warfare. Mercs are the very bane of winning hearts and minds. They are the gold standard of infidel in any religious or enlightened mind.

They were used in Iraq as a quick way of ramping up assets on the ground, under the very mistaken assumption that the locals would rise up and throw off the yoke of tyranny and be running democracy and McDonalds in a year or may three tops.

If the plan had looked at the longer view and factored in the need for more boots on the ground and maintaining a positive presence with the locals then the amount of mercs would have been reduced to maybe the equivalent of shopping mall guards in the green zone.

Mercs as you have pointed out are more costly, aren't tied into the chain of command as well, and as proven by Blackwater they really do not make build positive relationship building any easier.