Talk:Mercenary

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[edit] Removing link to prostitution

Prostitutes provide sexual services for money. Mercenaries kill people for money. I don't really see a connection. TheoryOfPractice (talk) 18:16, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

[edit] new section

I added a new sections about some typical prejudices against mercenaries, might be good if someone would spellchack them (rembember, non-native speaker here). Gmb (talk) 21:52, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Historically, though, what you added isn't really that true. There are plenty of examples of well-known and respected mercenary companies extorting their bosses. (Even in teh modern world, you see it with Blackwater, etc.) Also, plenty of easy victories were lost due to mercenaries stopping to loot instead of following up. Researcher (talk) 23:28, 9 May 2010 (UTC)
Which historical examples would that be? Gmb (talk) 11:39, 10 May 2010 (UTC)
Have you ever read about the medieval condottieri? Researcher (talk) 00:04, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
Yes. And also about the german Landsknechte and the swiss Reisläufer, and about just anybody else who carried arms at some time or another in europe. I`m a student of historical science, with european military history as my specialization ;)
Please note that I wrote that the believe is mostly! wrong. Of course there are lots of examples of mernearies deserting, looting, etc, but popular history tends to exaggerate those negative examples. And the condottieri are actually a good example for my thesis: As soon as they encountered the Landsknechte, they were all but wiped out and disappeared from the european battlefields. More later, I`m writing from a netbook right now. Gmb (talk) 17:29, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

[edit] Mercenary mutiny

Should we add a bit about the mercenaries in Africa and their various mutinies? ArchieGoodwin (talk) 22:58, 22 September 2011 (UTC)

[edit] The free market, the perfect way to find loyal war-wagers...... ?

The paragraph by Gmb from a few years ago contradicts the preceding paragraph that says "Machiavelli wrote that a mercenary, having no allegiance, will eventually hold the prince who employs him hostage for increasing amounts of money."

"The widely held image of the notoriously undisciplined, cowardly mercenaries who roam the land looting, raping, and murdering, however, is (mostly) wrong. A mercenary is a businessman, first and foremost, and as such is dependent on someone to hire him. So those mercenaries whose behavior does not advance the goals of an employer would be driven off the market (or into the ground) by those who aren't."

To me the above is just another repetition of a free-market believer's core tenet, and reflects the usual subtext of assuming that players in a market cannot or do not influence the market. Machiavelli's point is that mercs stand to push the employer around, but the above quote just denies that with no explanation why armed hard-men wouldn't have a problem with bullying some foppish royal. Or why someone who kills for money will only do that under orders, they would never kill another merc who is standing in the way of personal profit. Mercs wouldn't organise or unionise, etc..

94.197.122.74 (talk) 14:54, 16 January 2014 (UTC)

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