Originally posted by Breacher:
One of my more reliable European contacts tells me that he has verified information that Khaddaffi is hiring mercs at very high dollar, and European analysts are saying that if he can hold out for six months, he is likely to win against the rebellion since they are not expected to be able to field a fighting force for that long.
Mercs with a professional military background in the western militaries are getting around $15,000 per month. My source knows of six former US Air Force officers who have gone over to serving Khadaffi, several former East German military people some Czechs and Serbs. He thinks some US Army and possibly Marine personnel went over the fence too, but were likely out of the military for a while before going to work for Khadaffi. The situation with the US Air Force people has been reported in the media in Italy and France. My contact says that at the original offerings of $3000 to $6000 per month, most western European mercs were too proud to go work for Khadaffi and a few were rumored to be helping the rebels just for the adventure of it. At $15,000 per month he has gotten the attention of a lot of professionals throughout Europe.
There are some Israelis on the ground, but apparently not as many trigger pullers as money guys who are recruiting the African mercs.
Very interesting.
I've heard that there are a lot of American mercs in Burma right now, doing sort of a mercenary/missionary thing and helping out the Christian rebels there. They may be getting a little extra incentive by the CIA too. No doubt they are a LOT more effective than conventional missionaries.
The western mercs working for Kadhafi are probably serving as his personal security detail and similar roles.
Like it or not, mercs are making up an increasing composition of modern warfighting forces, and I'm positive that this will increase at an even faster rate in the near future. In fact, I won't be surprised if some countries start outsourcing their entire military.
