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August 1, 2013

Moonlighting In Mexico

The old "Have Gun, Will Travel" television series starring Richard Boone was a favorite of mine.  The series had a character named Paladin who traveled throughout the Olde West bringing respite and justice to the weary by ....  mostly killing people or threatening to do so. Or just by showing up with his bad acne-scarred self and giving his quintessential "I am bored, I want to kill someone" stare. He never ate, he never slept, he eschewed the company of women. I don't think he ever had a bowel movement either.

But Paladin reflected a need. In some areas of the world there always seems to be a need for a person who is well-versed in the use of a six gun, or a M16. As in the days of Paladin, these places are teeming with individuals seeking respite and justice; they will pay any price to obtain the services of someone who can provide the desired respite and justice.
Mexico is one of the those (these?) places.
This is my story.

Actually it's the story of active and former GI's who have presented their skills to the marketplace and found a profitable niche.

From Fox News:
Mexican cartels are recruiting hit men from the U.S. military, offering big money to highly-trained soldiers to carry out contract killings and potentially share their skills with gangsters south of the border, according to law enforcement experts.

The involvement of three American soldiers in separate incidents, including a 2009 murder that led to last week’s life sentence for a former Army private, underscore a problem the U.S. military has fought hard to address.
Actually there isn't much that is new here. It has been known for some time that gang members have been enlisting in the Army in order to gain military training in weapons use and small unit tactics.
"We have seen examples over the past few years where American servicemen are becoming involved in this type of activity," said Fred Burton, vice president for STRATFOR Global Intelligence. "It is quite worrisome to have individuals with specialized military training and combat experience being associated with the cartels."
Perhaps Obama and Holder are looking at this as a new resume building program that dovetails with their "Fast and Furious" gun trafficking. Let's face it, it made no sense to give the cartels all those thousands of guns unless they had some kind of instructor program.

5 comments:

Doom said...

Well, the cartel angel might be new, doubt it for the unscrupulous (or completely unscrupulous as I heard it mentioned) but... Soldiers and sailors have gone merc for as long as I have heard. Those with a penchant and the talent can earn very good money. Milosevic's private group, the White Tigers, were hiring for $150k-$200k a year for... specialists. Or, that was... what my channels indicated. It was dirty work, but it was against muslims and... other than that pretty good treatment. Good gear, good mates, a solid true enemy... not bad really.

As to those or these? Yes. You can use either. One points to a group, one more points to the condition of the group. To my mind. Not a linguist but I didn't sleep in some stupid cheesy hotel or motel last night. :)

sig94 said...

Doom - right on that account. Mercs have been around forever. Just don't like to see a bunch of guys crapping so close to where they're eating.

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

You knew it had to happen.

sig94 said...

Odie - I keep on saying nothing will ever surprise me anymore. But So many things still disappoint me.

Doom said...

Yeah. And mercs know not to... how to put it... have conflicts of interest with their previous boss, close or far. Mostly. I know some sure had to think hard about Milosevic. But then that wasn't a conflict of interest until Bill needed something to get the news to focus on something else. And from what I heard, they came out of it clean if their direct superior was assassinated.

Uhrm, I should say smart mercs. You are definitely right on that score. I'm surprised the forces they came from, along with the CIA, haven't cleaned them out just to make a point. It, starting with 's' and 'h', happens.