Updates from Afghanistan

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 7:57 am

sweetjesus wrote:all this truth is making my head hurt, can we please go back to name calling?

Your a rag head, sand monkey camel jockey,,
There,,
Feel better now?

D K · Post by **D K** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:01 am

ok, how about "mercenary"?
to quote the op....
"The money's going to be fantastic, so that'll help pay for my new house, but it'll be very austere working conditions, somewhat dangerous and very long, strenuous and stressful hours. I'm planning to take my notebook computer and Live out there with me, but I don't think I'll have much time to work on music (or post on this forum for that matter!!!)

However, that's a small price to pay to put in my part to help out the people there by tracking down and killing / caputuring Taliban; CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) should be able to get some good work done there if we can provide enough security for their reconstruction efforts.

Unfortunately Smu, I can't get my butt to Iraq right now (the money would be fantastic) until I've cut my teeth with a mission in the region. My experience in Bosnia doesn't ammount for shit as far as Blackwater is concerned, but after my tour in Afghanistan I'll see what oppotrunities develop"

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 8:25 am

i missed that..

he's a fucking mercenary?

haha

what a joke..

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:52 am

sweetjesus wrote:i missed that..

he's a fucking mercenary?

No,, not yet.
Thats what he wants to be when he grows up.
He needs to do the time in Afghanistan first, then blackwater will consider him.
Well,,
At least thats how i understand it.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:01 am

Homebelly wrote:
sweetjesus wrote:i missed that..

he's a fucking mercenary?
No,, not yet.
Thats what he wants to be when he grows up.
He needs to do the time in Afghanistan first, then blackwater will consider him.
Well,,
At least thats how i understand it.

oh, that just makes it a much more worthy cause.

love,
- camel jockey

Homebelly · Post by **Homebelly** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 10:05 am

sweetjesus wrote:
Homebelly wrote:
sweetjesus wrote:i missed that..

he's a fucking mercenary?
No,, not yet.
Thats what he wants to be when he grows up.
He needs to do the time in Afghanistan first, then blackwater will consider him.
Well,,
At least thats how i understand it.
oh, that just makes it a much more worthy cause.

love,
- camel jockey

Well,,
Gotta start some where i suppose

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:16 am

G.I. Joe wrote:The money's going to be fantastic...

..tracking down and killing...

Unfortunately Smu, I can't get my butt to Iraq right now (the money would be fantastic)...

100 internets to DK for finding that quote. I'm surprised SJ hadn't seen it before so there's probably plenty of others who haven't either.

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:41 am

the american taxpayer pays $5000USD a second for the war in Iraw

Dominik · Post by **Dominik** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:09 pm

sweetjesus wrote:the american taxpayer pays $5000USD a second for the war in Iraw

right,
now we know it.

THREAD CLOSED!

yoshitosser · Post by **yoshitosser** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:20 pm

DK, my goodness, are you sure he really said "My experience in Bosnia doesn't ammount for shit as far as Blackwater is concerned, but after my tour in Afghanistan I'll see what oppotrunities develop"

Because only the other day in discourse with the lovely Olga...

Olga wrote:

civilian shootings by gung ho contractors - Probably right on this. Black water and their goons are idiots.

and montry replied:

+1. I've met some of these guys, and they're no help at all. I'm as morally opposed to mercenaries as I am to conscription. They're not accountable, and that's the core of military force; accountability for the use of force. That's why there's ALWAYS an after action report for every kinetic incident, even if a donkey steps on a landmine left over from the soviets in the middle of the desert. Accountability.

Heavens above.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:23 pm

Heavens above indeed, now if only someone would sift around for quotes where he takes the moral high-ground on the Iraq war. Those would look just swell juxtaposed against his "unfortunately I can't go, the money would be fantastic" quotes.

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:17 pm

yoshitosser wrote:DK, my goodness, are you sure he really said "My experience in Bosnia doesn't ammount for shit as far as Blackwater is concerned, but after my tour in Afghanistan I'll see what oppotrunities develop"

Because only the other day in discourse with the lovely Olga...

Olga wrote:

civilian shootings by gung ho contractors - Probably right on this. Black water and their goons are idiots.

and montry replied:

+1. I've met some of these guys, and they're no help at all. I'm as morally opposed to mercenaries as I am to conscription. They're not accountable, and that's the core of military force; accountability for the use of force. That's why there's ALWAYS an after action report for every kinetic incident, even if a donkey steps on a landmine left over from the soviets in the middle of the desert. Accountability.

Heavens above.

I might have considered working for Blackwater, but after seeing them firsthand there's no way. I've had my eyes opened to a lot of things here. That's one of them.

Plus, Blackwater was not a serious option - I never committed to that. I see that the "wink"emoticon was left off that quote.

See the original here.

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59925

When I get back I've got a civilian job with the Federal Government lined up.

siddhu · Post by **siddhu** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:25 pm

Homebelly wrote:
siddhu wrote: It's extremely important on geo strategic level. It provides the closest sea port to the vast Central Asian oil and gas reserves. Which was one of the reasons for the Soviet invasion.

although there is some truth in your whole rant about pipelines and so forth,,
you should probably try and get a little more background from some place other than Mike Moore. To begin with Afghanistan is land locked and has no ports.

Yeah, my mistake in not clarifying this. I was ranting late at night! The pipeline was supposed continue through Afghanistan and hit the port in Pakistan.

And before you start nailing me about my source(s) being Mike Moore, I suggest you look at my earlier post about my family history.

I grew up in India and have traveled extensively through South West Asia. Additionally my family is a major political family, and I grew up on politics and foreign policy debates with members of goverment and diplomats.

I suggest you read "Ghost Wars" about the CIA/US involvement in Afghanistan, and the excellent Peter Bergen book about OBL to get a historical perspective on US involvement from the Soviet invasion onwards.

If you do not believe me or the authors above about the importance of Afghanistan, well then do your own research from additional sources and you will have confirmation.

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 3:29 pm

M. Bréqs wrote:Well, thanks for the well-wishes.

My lady's all for this; the reason we were able to buy a house recently is only because I'll be paying off the mortgage quickly with money earned this deployment. Of course she's scared, but she knows that if she were to try to forbid me to go, I would leave her in a heartbeat.

It's also kinda wierd when a lot of my friends have gone, and I'm the last to deploy; There's no peer pressure, but they share a common experience that I can't relate to, and I don't want to be the only one of my professional peers who hasn't taken his fair share of the shit.

Sincerely, the motivations for going are so many, it's almost overwhelming.
Pride,
Avoidance of shame,
Desire to share a common experience with my friends,
Desire for professional respect,
The medal (believe it, that hunk of brass means a lot),
The money,
The personal satisfaction of helping some really ufortunate people out,
The adventure,
Testing my physical and mental limits (self-actualization), etc.
One of my buddies (who's ex military) is a buddhist; He claims he achieved a lesser state of enlightenment after being shot at (and shooting back) in the Medak pocketin Croatia.

I'll also add to my quote from that original thread. (note the bold bit, and please excuse my spelling error. That should read "unfortunate").

Like I wrote about a half a dozen pages back, My vision of this mission is something that must be done for pragmatic reasons, (on a national level, to maintain deterrance and on a personal level for the reasons sited above), but that also passed a moral test.

Now that I have seen Blackwater, I wouldn't join them. The money is fantastic; it's about five times what I make now, but I wouldn't do it for the reasons I wrote above. I remain a man of principles.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 6:05 pm

M. Bréqs wrote:The money is fantastic