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

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

#151

Post by throw1234651234 »

poof131 wrote: post #120
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…

The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…

Were your parents rich?

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

#152

Post by bogomipz »

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…

But wasn't this cultural shift borne out of the Department of Defense itself under Donald Rumsfeld and the 20K private contractors they hired to conduct operations in Iraq? There was a PBS Frontline documentary about this called "Private Warrior" from around that time that's worth a watch:

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/private-warriors/

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

#153

Post by evgen »

whyhow wrote: post #48
JshWright wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point of the test... There is no one guaranteed path. Each situation will be different in a thousand different ways. It requires someone very "resourceful" to be able to navigate and handle all of the unknowns.

Yeah of course, I'm just interested hearing potential paths.

At that level you are going to start with agencies that have an existing K&R team, potentially from your insurance underwriter (because if you are the sort of person who needs to consider or plan for this threat then you also have insurance for it.) The steps past that point are beyond me but probably involve both political contacts as well as consultants/contractors with specialized skills -- I would expect that one of your various law firms is probably going to be your primary interface.

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

#154

Post by dclusin »

throw1234651234 wrote: post #151
poof131 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The privatization of the military is one of the most corrupt and corrosive things our country has done in a while. I flew F-18s for the Navy and did a ground tour in Iraq with Special Forces. Look at the pay grades in 2020.[1] E3-E6 are making about $25-40k in salary. With some hazard pay and Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) and Subsistence (BAS), depending on where you live (if not in the barracks) maybe you are ma…

Were your parents rich?

How does the answer to this add to or subtract from the substance of the ancestors' posts points?

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

#155

Post by pmoriarty »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #99
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.

John Brown’s zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for him. The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against s…

Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature, and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth. -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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

#156

Post by braythwayt »

ciarannolan wrote: post #114
braythwayt wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Hello, have you met the US Criminal Justice System? Curious why you felt the need to inject this "but America" argument into this thread? The two men arrested aren't charged with any crimes in America. They will be dealing with the Japanese justice system once extradited. Fighting extradition from the US has nothing to do with "poor and/or coloured" people or whatever bizarre argument you're trying to make.

It’s the presumption that there is some uniform high standard for justice in the first world that I object to. Economic development and justice are not synonymous, and the US is an excellent example of the fact that a country can be considered first-world by definition, but not garner plaudits for its justice system.

I could also have raised some questions about Canada’s record for justice, especially with respect to our indigenous peoples. Our system may look good on paper, and be reasonable for most citizens, but Canadian justice is also distributed unevenly.

If someone says that Japan’s justice system is worthy of criticism on its own merits, I have no objection and have no reason to mention the US.

It is only the presumption that “first-world == justice” that prompts me to provide a counter-example. And I have just given another, so it is not just the US.

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

#157

Post by kipchak »

Mirioron wrote: post #107
eloisius wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Given the increased importance of having better tech and weapons in modern warfare, maybe the modern equivalent of a mercenary should include private contractors/R&D alongside boots on the ground.

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

#158

Post by pmoriarty »

tomjen3 wrote: post #138
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.

There are bad people out there. I don't mean assholes and undesirebles. I mean men willing to kidnap and enslave women for sex. I got no issue with them being killed. And if the US military was a machine for murder they do a pretty bad job of it.

"There are bad people out there. I don't mean assholes and undesirebles. I mean men willing to kidnap and enslave women for sex. I got no issue with them being killed."

This is some John Wayne fantasy of what the military does and what war is about.

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

#159

Post by GcVmvNhBsU »

ggamecrazy wrote: post #83
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…

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…

A joke I’ve heard is: Why does a SEAL platoon need 14 men when a green beret team only needs 12? The SEALs need to bring their cameraman and producer.

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

#160

Post by mywittyname »

stonogo wrote: post #142
kthxbye123 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"Hazard pay" is $150 per month at most. The "free lifetime healthcare" gets eroded every congressional session (for a while there they took away dental coverage), and the VA health care system has a well-deserved reputation for being a nightmare factory. There is no such thing as a "zero-interest mortgage." The only benefit to a VA loan is the zero-down-payment. The only way to retire on a full-salary pension is to s…

In recent years, there seems to have been a push to hire vets into lucrative positions in the private sector. I know anecdotes are frowned upon here, but all four veteran friends/family of my own age managed to land very good jobs immediately after discharge. None had any college degrees, one (special forces) landed a mid-level management position at a bank, two (technical MOS) went into IT for defense contractors, and the latter ended up as a manager at a construction company.

Interestingly, the last one served ~2 weeks before receiving a medical discharge due to complications from a high-school football injury. He graduate high school, did practically nothing for two years before enlisting. Comes back a month later a veteran with a medical discharge and is getting multiple job offers.

Granted, special forces is pretty difficult to get into, you have to be smart and physically capable. So I'm sure there's a healthy amount of selection bias going on there. People capable of getting into the SF are generally capable of excelling anywhere.

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