Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 307 posts

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#101

Post by hpoe »

pmoriarty wrote: post #75
blantonl wrote: post #63

It's been extremely disturbing to see how much the culture of special operations military has changed in the past 20 years. Previously, Navy Seal and Green Berets operated in silent, keeping the sausage making of military special operations quiet and secret, just doing their duty. Now, it seems like every Navy SEAL now publically writes a book, sponsors a coffee line, or slaps their name, likeness and story all over…

" It's made a complete mockery of what has always been a silent service and honorable job" Killing people and enabling the mass murder machine that is the military is not and has never been honorable.

So I'll offer a counterpoint. Maybe what they were doing and the hands moving them weren't honorable but many of these guys joined because they did believe that they were going to defend freedom, they were going to serve their country, and they were going to protect innocents. Now whether or not that's what they actually ended up doing is a question for open debate.

But these guys did believe in what they were doing, and they made huge sacrifices for it, including being willing to lay down their own lives. So maybe the overall operation being conducted wasn't honorable, however in my mind at least, what they were willing to sacrifice for what they believed was right, is something commendable.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#102

Post by ggamecrazy »

0culus wrote: post #98
ggamecrazy wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe inside the special operations community, Navy Seals, especially Team 6, gets a lot of flak for the amount of insider content that comes out [1]. Perhaps some of the lessons may apply to the tech community as well. I found this quote resonating well even for myself and tech, specifically for the adoration of tech leaders: "It’s easy to fall in love with oneself, but this is not about us...It cannot be about…

Just to be certain, you realize that Duffel Blog is a satire site, right?

noted in the link description.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#103

Post by munk-a »

kthxbye123 wrote: post #85
cosmodisk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they are fed up with making pennies. It's the case in pretty much every country,only in the US they tend to have a little bit more so called opportunities because of mass obsession about anything military related. In my own country the guys from special forces take unpaid holidays and go abroad for some lucrative private contracts because the government pays peanuts.

Between their salaries, hazard pay, pensions, government hiring and contracting preferences, free lifetime healthcare, free tuition, free graduate tuition, free job retraining and zero-interest mortgages, U.S. soldiers are amply compensated, and there are plenty of legitimate opportunities available for guys from elite units like the Green Berets. None of the guys writing tell-alls or turning to a life of internation…

Is this the same free lifetime healthcare that other vets get that involves frequent denials and years long waiting lists to get treatment?

The US is pretty terrible to their armed forces - but they're quite nice to the R&D side of the military, because that's the side that's in competition with private industry.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#104

Post by ciarannolan »

subsubzero wrote: post #95
blantonl wrote: post #63

It's been extremely disturbing to see how much the culture of special operations military has changed in the past 20 years. Previously, Navy Seal and Green Berets operated in silent, keeping the sausage making of military special operations quiet and secret, just doing their duty. Now, it seems like every Navy SEAL now publically writes a book, sponsors a coffee line, or slaps their name, likeness and story all over…

From what another commentator said, they are not making much, 54,000 a year [1] I consider them almost on a level with pro athletes given that to do the job at a high level you are done by your early 40's, in addition the numbers able to reach this field are very small[2] (about 33k based on 2014 estimates) based on overall troop count - 1.3M [3] that means that the top 2.3% of soldiers qualify for special forces, a…

I'm totally ignorant on the details of this, but wouldn't someone who served in the US military for 20+ years have a great financial retirement and other benefits for life?

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#105

Post by blaser-waffle »

arkades wrote: post #71
cosmodisk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they are fed up with making pennies. It's the case in pretty much every country,only in the US they tend to have a little bit more so called opportunities because of mass obsession about anything military related. In my own country the guys from special forces take unpaid holidays and go abroad for some lucrative private contracts because the government pays peanuts.

I can't make any claim to expertise, as I've only known a handful of these folks in the US, but from what I've heard, they don't make pennies. They just make a lot less than what private industry is willing to pay for mercenaries. There is, in fairness, a difference.

As true with code as with pulling triggers. Work for the Feds and pull 150k around DC and a security clearance. Some of the seniors at big contractors pull big $$$. Meanwhile, you can get a total comp of 400k or more working for a FAANGM out west while smoking weed everyday and banging foreigners.

My understanding is that the SOF and SEALs get paid well, even as enlisted folks (who get paid less than officers), but why settle for an adequate paycheck when you can have a kick-ass one? Doubly so, since the kinds of people who become Spec Ops are hyper-motivated and deliver results.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#106

Post by Lendal »

ProAm wrote: post #7
joncrane wrote: post #2

Oof, I clicked and remembered WSJ is paywalled...what's the trick to get around that again?

It's responsible to pay for good journalism.

Yes, but is it responsible to pay for _all_ good journalism? You'd go bankrupt.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#107

Post by Mirioron »

eloisius wrote: post #89
cosmodisk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they are fed up with making pennies. It's the case in pretty much every country,only in the US they tend to have a little bit more so called opportunities because of mass obsession about anything military related. In my own country the guys from special forces take unpaid holidays and go abroad for some lucrative private contracts because the government pays peanuts.

This is also how Los Zetas formed. A bunch of elite soldiers figured out they could make a lot more money as enforcers for drug cartels.

If you think about it, it's a bit odd that there are so few mercenaries in this day and age. When you look back on history then from what I can tell, mercenaries were much more common.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#108

Post by fennecfoxen »

braythwayt wrote: post #64
pnw_hazor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Japanese criminal justice system is not up to first world standards. "The litany of violations that commonly take place while the detainee is in daiyou kangoku would befit places such as China, Turkey, or the Israeli occupied West Bank. Detainees are subject to extremely long (e.g. over twelve hours) questioning sessions, designed to wear them down. Sleep deprivation is common, as is the deprivation of adequate f…

Hello, have you met the US Criminal Justice System? No, not that one. I mean the system used for the poor and/or coloured and/or from a "shithole country." The one that cages children and has decided that prisoners do not need soap or disinfectant in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The one that shoots first and asks questions later. The one that systemically plants evidence. The one that takes performs "parallel con…

Recall that the first world is the United States and its allies, the second world is the USSR and its allies, and the third world is just all the rest. Then maybe look for better words to precisely convey your sentiments, instead of propping up your talk with old clichés ;)

The US justice system gets a lot of deserved flak for its failure to live up to its ideals, but it's a hell of a lot better than the police-accuse-you-confess-or-else standard pervasive in Japan. Some light reading on the topic:

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2015/12/05/forced-to-confe...

"It is impossible to know the true figure, but when 99.8% of prosecutions end in a guilty verdict, it is clear that the scales of justice are out of balance."

https://www.economist.com/asia/2015/12/03/silent-screams ("Why you might prefer a Bangkok jail to one in Chiba")

"Past inmates describe draconian rules. Eye contact with prison wardens is often forbidden or, when allowed, has to be accompanied by a smiling demeanour. Some compulsory prison work can be mind-numbing—folding pieces of paper into eight and unfolding them, for instance. Talk is banned for much of the day. Reading is only sometimes allowed.

Toshio Oriyama is a former restaurant owner who spent 22 years behind bars for a murder he insists he did not commit. “You weren’t free to do anything except breathe the air,” he says; even to stand up required a guard’s permission. Mr Oriyama had to sit cross-legged much of the time, in some pain; and “when we took a bath, the bums of all my inmates were dark like bedsores” from sitting in the same position all the time."

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#109

Post by 0xCMP »

ciarannolan wrote: post #104
subsubzero wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what another commentator said, they are not making much, 54,000 a year [1] I consider them almost on a level with pro athletes given that to do the job at a high level you are done by your early 40's, in addition the numbers able to reach this field are very small[2] (about 33k based on 2014 estimates) based on overall troop count - 1.3M [3] that means that the top 2.3% of soldiers qualify for special forces, a…

I'm totally ignorant on the details of this, but wouldn't someone who served in the US military for 20+ years have a great financial retirement and other benefits for life?

IIUC it's the same as anyone else being in the military for 20 years. That's not really enough IMHO for the level of training they have.

Re: U.S. arrests former Green Beret, son, in connection with Ghosn escape from Japan

#110

Post by andyjohnson0 »

md2020 wrote: post #97
pmoriarty wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" It's made a complete mockery of what has always been a silent service and honorable job" Killing people and enabling the mass murder machine that is the military is not and has never been honorable.

[flagged]

That doesn't work forever. Name an honourable war conducted by the US military since 1946.
Post reply on HN