
Why do private military contractors stay in politically-unstable places? - IsaacL
http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/30944/why-would-pmcs-be-in-politically-unstable-places-as-opposed-to-waiting-in-comfo
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Animats
Read "Manual of the Mercenary Soldier" (1988), by Paul Baylor. Serious book
for real-world mercs. It covers this issue. One well-known player had written
something like "xxx happened. I was there" (and could thus get in on the war).
Baylor writes "He didn't spend a lot of time hanging around Vancouver or
Helsinki."

(Baylor was writing pre-9/11\. The rules are different now for US citizens.)

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QPaysTaxes
You should post this as an answer to that question -- summarize the relevant
parts, maybe throw in a few quotes, and add a citation at the bottom. It'd be
a great contribution. At the very least, you should post a comment on the
question with the book's title and author, so interested people can see it.

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feklar
Soldiers of fortune do go home afterwards and wait around for another job
these days (unfortunately a short wait)
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/south-
africas-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/14/south-africas-
ageing-white-mercenaries-who-helped-turn-tide-on-boko-haram)

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kasey_junk
One thing I think people ought to know is that there is also a community of
mercenaries that don't have anywhere near the professionalism expressed in
this post.

See "The Road To Raqqa"
([http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPiuwzEtuY](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MzPiuwzEtuY))
for examples of bikers, homemakers & software dev mercenary outfits organized
just on Facebook, operating in combat zones currently.

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QPaysTaxes
You should add this as a comment on the actual post, so people like me who
frequent WB.SE but not HN can benefit.

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buckbova
Accepted answer.

[http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/30952](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/30952)

> Why do programmers looking for easy cash from VCs they can blindside with a
> storm of buzzwords migrate to San Francisco? Its one of the absolute worse
> places to run a company, but its one of the best for starting a company
> simply because the community is there.

Makes sense. I always considered myself a tech mercenary.

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cshimmin
Wow. Not only an interesting perspective from experience so far removed from
my own, but also just really well written.

My favorite quote:

"Why do gravitate to the eye of the storm? Because in a world with no job
security you have to make your own luck."

Really resonates and seems like good advice to apply to many endeavors.

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dsharlet
Don't miss the blog post he linked either, it's also a great read:
[http://zxq9.com/archives/911](http://zxq9.com/archives/911)

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bitwize
Why do techies hang around in SF? Why do aspiring actors hang around in LA?

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wernercd
Why do lawyers hang around ambulances?

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emmelaich
Q. Why do you rob banks?

A. Because that's where the money is.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton%27s_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton%27s_law)

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saitosoul
better off starting one and raiding peoples pensions

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JumpCrisscross
Suppose an American contracting for the Angolan government shoots a Canadian
in Angola. Would the latter have civil or criminal claims on the former in a
Western court? How do mercenaries manage this legal risk?

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kls
In most of the places where operators are required, the law is so fluid that
there is little recourse save a select few. It is almost guaranteed It is not
going to be some random Canadian on holiday and if they are out on contract
themselves well then those are the risks. Contractors and operators outside of
diplomatic channels have little protection or recourse for when stuff goes
bad. Many times the laws of a particular town change when the next local gang
takes power and short of major genocide once the peace is restored no one is
really interested in digging up a missing person her and there. Unless you
carry a charter or are flagged, you are pretty much on your own in most of
these zones.

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coldtea
> _Why do private military contractors stay in politically-unstable places?_

Because that's where they make the most money....

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mrmrcoleman
Tax reasons? English rock stars have been reported to spend no more than 30
days per year in the UK to avoid paying any income tax there.

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cylinder
Cities will continue to be power clusters regardless of your telecommunication
fantasies

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kafkaesq
Because that's where the money is -- and congressional oversight, at its
thinnest.

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jlebrech
they bring the shooty things where the people need shooting.

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basicplus2
I would have thought they enjoy the feeling of power and control as they
engage in violence and there is more chance for it

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kaonashi
Because those are the areas they want to destabilize to drum up work.

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PhasmaFelis
I feel like any area that is already so unstable that a handful of ex-Marines
have a real shot at knocking it over is probably about to fall over on its own
regardless, so why would they bother hurrying the inevitable?

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a3n
They want to be home for Christmas?

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redwood
This is a bizarre post to see here, and an even more odd comment thread. No
one else is curious to understand the context on that subreddit and why at a
meta-level this whole discussion is interesting to this particular community
on hackernews?

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IsaacL
It's not a subreddit - it's the world building stack exchange, for people
creating worlds for novels and games. I was surprised to see an answer by an
actual mercenary, and thought it might be of general interest. It's a part of
the world I know very little about.

That guys blog is also worth a read (the link is in his profile).

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redwood
Thanks and good point about it not being a subreddit. I certainly didn't mean
to say this was inappropriate here, only that I found it interest it was
posted; and was surprised no one was having the meta-discussion around how
interesting it is that this community exists!

