I mentioned that I woke up in the middle of the presidential debates when Kerry said, “The borders must be protected” and Bush countered with “The borders must be closed.”
I went back to sleep when I realized they were talking about IRAQ’s borders.
But for a few moments there I felt like I was living in another world, some sort of Alternative Universe where the presidential nominees of both parties were talking about protecting AMERICA’S borders.
It was like the otherworldy feeling you would get if you found a documentary condemning black criminals for the fact that policemen tend to pick on blacks.
That will never happen.
But I got that feeling when I saw the History Channel’s documentary “Soldiers for Hire.”
Until that documentary was made the official line was that real combat mercenaries don’t exist.
J. Edgar Hoover couldn’t deal with organized crime so he said the Mafia was a myth. Another official myth is that race doesn’t exist.
Another official myth has been that mercenary soldiers don’t exist. I have seen several documentaries that showed some fat white man in Africa who got into trouble because they said they were mercenaries.
The official myth has always been that Soldiers of Fortune magazine is just a place where Vietnam vets rehash their fighting days.
Suddenly the History Channel had a documentary on mercenaries, a.k.a. mercs, the way I was used to them.
It would have been incredible enough if the History Channel had simply admitted that serious mercs existed. Just seeing that would have made me feel I was going nuts. But the History Channel went even further. It pointed out that mercs are not just bloodthirsty paid killers, but pros.
Not only are they pros, they are pros who care. And they are pros who can do things a whole army can’t do.
This was too much. I started getting dizzy.
I am searching for an explanation for this sudden turnabout in the “Mercs don’t exist” line. Maybe the explanation is that they did such a great job in the Serbian situation where all the liberals were against the Serbians.
You can watch “Soldiers for Hire” and extrapolate, extrapolate, exptrapolate, and you will know a lot of Cold War history that never occurred to you before.
Mercs are hired killers, murderers, and some of the best people who ever walked the earth. Terrorists are not afraid of World Opinion. But they are terrified of a merc.
#1 by Hank Parnell on 10/10/2004 - 1:40 am
You know, I didn’t watch that because I’ve become leery of the History Channel. If they show it again, I will. Real mercs have always been fascinating, honorable men.
Believe it or not, once, back in 1999, History Channel showed a “History Undercover” that actually SAID that blacks were responsible for the slave trade. And never, to my knowledge, showed it again.
#2 by Richard L. Hardison on 10/11/2004 - 8:05 pm
If not for the constant inter-tribal warefare in western Africa there would have been no slave trade. The slaves have been the human detritus of warfare for millenia, not just in Africa, but throughout Eurasia as well. In west Africa they sold you to the french, Spainiards or the English, they kept you in chains or they killed you. If you were on the losing side your future was either grim or short.
Having known some Mercs, and I’m not talking about the Soldier of Fortune readership either, they were no different than the soldiers I knew in the US Military. Many had been in the US Military or were Brits, the second largest source of my personal acquaintance. They had come from the best military training in the world, US Special Forces or Brit SAS, and were no different than their attitudes after they became free lancers.
#3 by Jay on 10/12/2004 - 1:55 am
I’m not a reader of SoF, but were there a bunch of American white guys fighting for the Serbs? Are there any internet articles on this?
Only a bunch of right-wing nuts like us would support a Serbian socialist over…well, an American socialist.