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Mercs and WMDs

From: "Tomb" <tomb@d...>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:19:20 -0400
Subject: Mercs and WMDs

When would Mercs be issued WMDs or use ones they had otherwise acquired?

1) When getting tried was better than getting dead
2) When no other method was available to bail them out of bad trouble
3) When the KV were on the doorstep of humanity and everything was on
the line

Situation #3 posits a KV advance on Earth that we are having trouble
stemming. At that time, all methods of engaging the enemy heavily would
be pursued. If we could increase our counterforce options by deploying
WMDs to mercenary units defending human colonies, I'm quite sure we'd do
it. By this time, the concern wouldn't so much be "are these guys gonna
steal one and do something with it" as "is anyone gonna be around to
care?". At that juncture, everyone becomes a soldier-candidate and any
trained military force an asset. Any weapon one can deploy against the
foe becomes an acceptable option. When it is win or die, all other
choices kind of fade away.

WMDs might be used by a mercenary unit who expects to be slaughtered
otherwise (by a national army, colonial power, or whatever) and to whom
disbanding or even jail would seem like a minor concern. 

And since suitcase nukes aren't too hard to come by (scarily so) and
other WMDs are not impossible to construct, one has to assume there will
be a 2183 black market (even moreso possibly than today). Heck, if a 17
year old kid can build a breeder reactor in his back yard.... then
imagining some colony world making mustard gas and then having it fall
into the wrong hands is hardly unlikely. 

Of course, the UN and the major powers will come down hard on private
operations using WMDs (they don't like competition!). So it won't be
done unless straights are desperate or the reward is so huge that one
can then disappear. But ruling out the possibility definitely ignores a
lot of the grey conflicts going on around the world and a lot of not
widely known incidents that have already transpired. 

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