The 19 True Things Generals Can't Say About Afghanistan

[SwordsMaster]

Am I? You said it, he was a medic. What experience does he have in disabling explosives, close protection, or counter-insurgency tactics?

200k isn't a stretch.

my cousin was an e-5 and now he works for Xe. he was a ranger combat medic.

I'm sorry swordmaster in this case you are simply wrong or misinformed.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Most Private Military Contractors that actually go out and have to deal with enemy contact are not only better trained than most cops, but most of them are former career-minded soldiers.

I don't know where people get the idea that they're a bunch of buffoons. When I was in the Army it was tough to go a week without hearing at least one Staff Seargeant or First Sergeant say how much they would like to get out of the Army and join Blackwater.

The answer to that is "the Generals", several of whom have said they think the Blackwater lot are basically pirate scum/an undisciplined mob (off duty).

also, you're out? You only went in like two years ago.

[Centurion1]

I think gc answered your question more than sufficiently........

High Profile PMC's get the bodyguard details because such details are hyper dangerous and require the kinds of skills a group of such operatives is trained for. You do not simply stop trainign when you enter in with a pmc. nor do they offer the fat types of salaries they have to just anybody like you presume.

[Papewaio]

An electrician can get over $5.5k Aus a week working in coal seam gas installations.
Kitchen hands at mine sites a $100k per annum.

So $200k for being a merc is being short changed

[Papewaio]

Mine sites are looking for people who can hand working in remote locations, who can handle harsh weather and are hard workers.

Did you drive a tank? Can you drive a truck... $90k+ to drive a haul pack... A truck so large it possibly could pancake a tank.

Can you hike? Become a geology field hand.

Can you lift heavy pipes or operate heavy machinery? Then join a drill team

[PanzerJaeger]

*And before anyone rips on me for supporting big government, here... if every American was willing to do a stint in the Army during a time of war, then every American would be entitled to free college. IMO it should be required to even vote. Heinlein style. But a more realistic and morally sound solution (since I'm aware that my first instincts on an issue are usually morally unsound) would simply be to drop the price of higher education here in the states.. it's prohibitively expensive, and education seems like one of those "Basic Human Rights" people like to wave around.

I don't think anyone here would criticize you for that. You earned it and you deserve it, along with the new tax credit and anything else society can do to ensure that your service does not put you at a disadvantage once you get out.

[Strike For The South]

And by PMC we mean mercenary

Not that I particularly mind that we are using them, just don't piss on my boots and tell me it's raining. It of course speaks to the larger issue of the American gov't sanitizing everything to keep the hawks hawkish.

[Strike For The South]

Personally i've always found it very shallow to go so out of the way to *not* call them Mercenaries. They're not rough and tumble vagabonds, but they certainly qualify as Mercenaries as far as my common-sense meter goes.

We are paying private companies to carry out military missions

I don't see where the disconnect is here.

[Strike For The South]

There is no disconnect. But Big Brother would prefer it if you continued executing doublethink properly.

Did you just retake 10th grade english? Why all the 1984 refrences?

[Strike For The South]

Because they pertain to the discussion at hand? Maybe I'm making some ultra subtle political statement (so subtle, in fact, that it's LACK of subtlety is in fact a form of subtlety!?!?)? Am I just out of my gourd?

Or.. more likely.. Big Brother told me to.

I'm glad you're back

[Papewaio]

If I was in dire straights, yes. Those are definately the logical next-step for someone with my skillset. Thankfully, the government is now paying for me to go to college, and I can gain other skills that are more marketable, and lead to jobs with less bullets being shot in my general direction and/or unwanted hikes through crappy terrain.

*And before anyone rips on me for supporting big government, here... if every American was willing to do a stint in the Army during a time of war, then every American would be entitled to free college. IMO it should be required to even vote. Heinlein style. But a more realistic and morally sound solution (since I'm aware that my first instincts on an issue are usually morally unsound) would simply be to drop the price of higher education here in the states.. it's prohibitively expensive, and education seems like one of those "Basic Human Rights" people like to wave around.

Australia has practically free higher education (it's a CPI debt that's payed off as part of your tax when you go over a minimium income)... without having to join the military.

[lars573]

We are paying private companies to carry out military missions

I don't see where the disconnect is here.

The disconnect is that modern mercs have earned themselves bad reps.
But this group of British persons explains it better.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Many countries have free higher education. In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's been awhile since the USA was at the very top of the college charts, and I wouldn't be surprised if the nation that is at the top charges less for school!

But that's just me making an assumption. Could be wrong.

No, the US is still at the top, though per-capita you rank somewhat lower, 6th or something.

CalTech is #1 in the world, Harvard #2.

[Husar]

What are these ratings based on anyway? How do you rate a university? Compare what they teach to the universal truth?

[Tellos Athenaios]

What are these ratings based on anyway? How do you rate a university? Compare what they teach to the universal truth?

Typically, number of high profile awards won by students at the institution and number of high profile awards won by members of staff. There's usually some weights system in the point scoring algorithm, too.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

What are these ratings based on anyway? How do you rate a university? Compare what they teach to the universal truth?

Lots of things, mostly teaching and research: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...2/top-400.html

[CrossLOPER]

Lots of things, mostly teaching and research: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.u...2/top-400.html

"Industry income". Uh... I am assuming that is average income. If that is the case, those rankings make no sense.

[Major Robert Dump]

Apologies for spelling and grammar, its dark and we are running our server off a generator. Way to use resources!

For the record, the "mercenaries" are not only doing military operations. It should not be the job of NATO forces to protect NGO bee-bopping around the country. I might accept this arguement for NGO non-profits -- in fact, a lot of non-profits go on missions with us on a regular basis, either riding along or tailing behind. But there is no way we can expect the military to provide protection for the likes of a for-profit like Central Asia Development Group,

CADG happens to be very good and effective at what they do, and their cash for work programs are 20x more efficient than the drivel we call civil affairs. therefore it is highly important for them to have security that are not gunslingers, who behave accordingly, because doing otherwise would hurt their business and get their people killed. They also tend to hire former soldiers based more on brains than brawn, as they use different types of weapons and won't touch a Ranger unless he has a PhD. They hire a lot of SAS, former PSYOPS, former Civil Affairs types. In case I didnt make it clear, theri security is organic and a lot of their "project managers" double as security.

Groups like Xe have their place, but it does not mean I have to like it. First off, the private contractors have done a piss poor job training Afghan soldiers and police. This is well documented. Second, like pretty much all the other civilians working around us, they operate by a different set of rules while eating our food, living in our barracks and hiding behind our walls. Are they all bad, no, we have had some very good co-op missions and intelligence sharing with these guys, but we have also has serious issues.

For example, one Xe crew wanting all the info we could give them on a village. We had invested a lot of time an dmoney building facilites here, and had a great working relationship with th eelders, who frequently fed us relaible information. Therefore, we wanted to know what Xe was planning. And by "we" I mean the OIC and his staff, not the whole freaking NATO. They refused to divulge any info, and told us some crap about clearances, which we laughed at. We told them we had interests in that village. they asked us what interests, and we would not tell them, and fed them lines about them not having the clearance. Stalemate.

another example, Xe drove their 4 wheelers like maniacs around one of our small outposts.They were boisterous and disuprive in the DFAC. They drank alcohol regularly and harassed women. One guy almost took out an interpeter in his 4 wheeler, which prompted a yound PFC to yell obscenities, which prompeted a roided up Xe merc to hop off his 4 wheeler and start pushing the PFC while saying shit like "do you know who I am? I used to be a blah blah blah" (this is a common one, from mercs all the way down to little fat dudes who work the container yard, as if any of us give to **** where they have been or what they have done) so a crowd gather and this PFCs friends try to split them up and this roid head starts threatening to take on the whole group and he would have one. then a 50 year old LTC, a female, casually told him that if he attacked any of her men she would shoot him dead. Problem solved. 4 days later, Xe was no longer on the FOB.

I have an equally large problem with the non-combat DA Civilians ans hordes of specialty comapnies who serve no purpose other than to make a profir on military innefficiency. You see, we will replace those 30,000 tropps leaving with 30,000 cuivilians getting paid even more, either GS-15/15 level logisiticians and forklift drivers, or contractors. so many of these contractors, I am convinced, joined at the start of the war with the intent of getting out in 4 years or less (a BS "disability" will always be a plus) and going rogue as a contractor. so many of the covilians who I have to answer to, so many of the ones who ruin my day, sop many of these guys and their 8 hr work days, free meals and weekends off, they are quite literally unqualified at this job and only exist due to low expectations and federal waste. Want an example?

when i leave, my company gearand vehicles has to go through customs. everything. I have 6 cops in my company. I am customs Certified. all the customs rules are readily available online or from the military customs office.

Nonetheless, prior to customs, I have to set up an appointment with some BS comppany who does our "pre-customs" inspection. I'm getting inspected for an inspection. If I fail the main inspection, I fix the problem and we do it again, as the customs inspection I m talking about for shipped equipment happens WEEKS before we leave, so whats ht epoint of precustoms???

So instead, 2 shuckin and Jivin Louisiana boys who are never on time and take 3 hour lunches, tell ME when I can bring my stuff for them to look at and say things like "window too dirty.......too much gas in tank.......1750 packing list crooked." I hsve to take damn near my entire company property book, to include 5 million dollar STT and JNN trucks, break everything down, lay it out, get inpsected, and all so I can puti back to gether and do it again a couple weeks later. they entire process is a 8 day long endeavor if you have a squad on it. Bravo. GG.

but don't worry, they are veterans! One guy readily tells me he was Infantry in the 1980s (wow, just wow) and the other guy was a Public Affairs Officer who spent 4 years in DC. Yeah, these guys are the real cream of the crop. Even though I am not going home for a while, I have decided to send home stuff we have deemed useless, because our command would not listen to -- hmmm --the previous 11 battlespace owners and just felt we had to bring vehiclesand equipment that no one else brought for very good reason. So I go to the pre-customs boys ans set up the appointment, they are completely dumfounded because my unit "ain't sposed" to leave for a while still, and they ain't never had someone come through with just a few vehicles. they did not want to help me. I called their bluff, as there is no way I am the first person to think of doing this, and they eventually agreed after vieled threats that I would cut off their base supply source and kill their internet and AFN

Meanwhile, as troops leave not to be replaced by troops, we have hoirdes of DA civilians coming in and tryin to invent the wheel. I had a middle aged, overwieght woman, talk down to me and tell me that I needed to teach her my job and better provide a job description because she is a GS 15. so I pointed out that I actually had 5 jobs, and the job she was referring to was one that I was doing out of the kindness of my heart, because the division we fall under never thought to bring a DODAAC or UIC for their FOB Garrison, which means they piggy back on my company property book foir everything the base needs to order. Never mind that this quadruples my Property book and hence my inventory time, nevermind that my company runs about 4 simeltaneous missions on any given day, and nevermind that I get every retard coming into my office asking me for crap from toilet paper (not my job) to compasses (still not my job) to wet floor signs (for that one I looked in a desk drawer and sarcastically said "sorry, fresh out."

My company job is more than full time, the only reason I do this is because I think the mayor supply sgt is a biscuit, I like the mayor, and their office is near mine.

So fatty doesnt like my attitude and asks me who is in charge in my CP, I say "me, please get out. I have company business to attend to" and I sent her packing to the FOB Mayor and let him know via email that my chratiy work as the Provincial Property book was about to end if they didn't straighten the civilians out.

Moral of the story: We are sending overpaid civilians to replace effective soldiers and the civlians don't even have a plan, because if they did they would have brought a DODAAC and UIC. A DA Civilian is not going to pick up additonal jobs out of charity. Military has flexibility on this where civil servants do not.

I might also point out that every FOB and COP is theater directed to reduce the number of non tactical vehicles on base (gators, sedans, suvs) yet the DOD continues to include said vehicles in civilian contracts. Meanwhile, the military people have to ride in a 6000 pound truck if they want to visit Class IV, or pick someone up from the HZ, or haul supplies. Yet there are offices with 5 civilians that will have 5 pickups, and they certainly never haul anything, they call the military for that. I see overweight contractors get in a car and drive a quarter mile to the DFAC, meanwhile PVT snuffy has to carry 4 duffel bags 3 miles from the rotary wing terminal to the fixed wing terminal. It makes me frikkin sick.

Ok, I am done ranting. I have company business to attend to

[Major Robert Dump]

I was going to rant about Pakistan and how we spend more money appeasing them than we would if hey were not a logistical hub, but I am not in the mood right now, so I will tell some more stories about our beloved contractors and DA Civilians....

At the larger bases, there is a problem with squatting. I can tell you that is would be easy, as an american, to be at bagram or Jallalabad for months without being noticed. It is common practice amongst civlians working for a contractor to not check out of their rooms when they depart, then their replacemnts show up and get new rooms, and the company holds onto the old rooms, making them special spots for parties, booty calls, favors for squatters etc. Bagram is especially bad I hear. Then there are the civilians who travel around a lot and have a room at 6 different bases.

The problem with this is that it backlogs the people who deserve rooms, like the real soldiers with stressful, dangerous jobs, and we have soldiers living in 64 man tents while contractors hold on to rooms they don't even use.

One of my contacts at Bagram said they just caught an american company with 6 employees holding a total of 16 rooms in 2 huts (8 per hut) and when the billeting QA/QCs went down they alwayshad an excuse, like person "x" was on leave, person "y" was on a mission, etc. I tturns out the had ripped down the walls between several rooms and turned them into lounges and bars. the only reason these people got busted is because they tried to acquire yet another BHUT with 8 rooms for some new employees. when billetting told them their LOAs and contracts we only to accomodate for 16 people, one of the knucklehead supervisors tried to doctor the LOAs to say said company employees were GS15s and therefore deserved double rooms. the billetting NCOIC was on his game and noticed the LOAs said they all had TS clearances until summer 2013, which is far outside the standard clearance statute. Then the whole lie fell apart, and all the employees of the company were given 8 hours to pack their stuff, then they were escorted to the BAF ECP and told to find their own way home. Oddly enough, this company still has a contract after they allegedly "fired" all offending parties., I am currently trying to get names and company info because I would like to pull a hatchet job on them. these pigs are drinking and screwing in rooms while our soldiers are sleeping in trnasient tents, it makes me sick.

There is currently a shift going on at manybases where new quarters are being constructed for soldiers only, and as the soldiers move to these areas, the former billets will be for contractors only. so if a contractor is playing the system he is only screwing other contractors. AAFES, FLUOR and a lot of the big companies already have their own compounds specifically for this. soldiers do not live there, and the compound mayor keeps everyone in line. Segregation in this case is good. We can still visit the compounds to hit on Ukranian and Indonesian hotties, we just cannot live there.

The DFACS are another example. A lot fo bases reserve the first hour of chow for military only, because if they didn't the contractors would line up 10 minutes prior and all military would have to wait a freaking hour just to eat. I saw this last year at BAF. It's still the case, as 50 minutes into the first hour there will be hundreds of contractors lined up to eat their free meals. Civilians arent supposed to take food out of the DFACS. soldiers can, as we have to feed our friends and need to get stuff to go to meet timelines, yet all the DFACS have to post guards at the exits to keep all the contractors from taking food. People get busted every day. Some of them are repeat offenders. This is not just US contractors mind you, but everyone: the polish, the indians, the ghanans. It's quite pathetic.

[Vladimir]

Dude. Relax. There's no point getting stressed about what you can't change. It just bites you in the end.