RE: Mercs, yet again

> > way the UN will allow a Mercenary Charter
> > to come into being will involve the
> > mercenaries that are chartered from not
> > participating in insurgent operations to
> > destabilize a national government, on that
> > you can depend. So those doing that will be
> > doing it unchartered (quite probable) or
> > very carefully and quietly.
>
> Hrm--you're assuming that a Merc Charter is under UN
> supervision.	You're also assuming that the UN will
> suddenly get over it's schitzophrenia regarding
> insurrections.

On the other hand, the UN may have a vested interest in boosting the
numbers
of mercs out there. Setting up a situation where  proxie battles are
being
fought by merc units (as opposed to national forces) could be viewed as
in
the UN's best interest.

The biggest problem (as I see it) with trying to apply modern day
applications of doctrine to the GZG universe is the fact that the modern
world is interconnected in a way the the GZG universe isn't. We're 24hrs
away from standing anywhere on the planet, and communication is measured
in
seconds or at worst minutes.

This is far from the truth in the GZG universe.

Why can pirates exist? Well, for one thing by the time the Navy finds
out
about the attack the pirates are probably at least a few days away (at
an
absolute minimum 6hrs per 'jump'), now add the time that it takes for
the
Navy (or whomever) to get to the crime scene, now lets try and PSB some
sort
of tracking ability???

It is much more like:

Ship Leaves Port
Ship doesn't arrive on time
Obligitory waiting period (so that ships don't go haring off on wild
goose-chases when somebody is a little late)
Ship(s) sent to investigate
Ship(s) find evidence of pirate attack
Navy sends info along to Intel for analysis
Intel sends back analysis

This happens many times

Somebody finally figures out what pirate group it is.

See the first steps again.

Somebody finally figures out (most likely HUMINT) where the pirate base
is.

See the first steps again

Somebody (non-military) finally makes the call that the pirates have
been
bad enough to wipe out the base.

Navy attacks, wipes out base, survivors flee, the entire cycle starts
again.

When looking at Merc Naval Forces what makes the most sense is that big
conglomerates have thier own navy (rather East India Companyish) and
probably thier own 'army' (same again)

David