CIA Hired Private Military Firm Blackwater to Oversee Secret Assassination Program

[DotCommunist]

Right up there with Hubbard in the pretentiousness stakes, though. And not as clever as he thinks he is.

knew his craft though, knew it well. Check out White Plague and the submarine one. A skilled writer.

 

[kyser_soze]

You're talking to two serious Dune fans here...might wanna watch yer step

And no, it isn't as clever as he thinks it is...I was simply musing on Leto IIs comments about how armies can be seen as a kind of arrested adolescence in boys, and how that's not always a good thing when they come home...this relates to mercs obv insofar as they are operating in a consequence free environment, and are behaving in a way that fighters have for millenia...

 

[DotCommunist]

You're talking to two serious Dune fans here...might wanna watch yer step

And no, it isn't as clever as he thinks it is...I was simply musing on Leto IIs comments about how armies can be seen as a kind of arrested adolescence in boys, and how that's not always a good thing when they come home...this relates to mercs obv insofar as they are operating in a consequence free environment, and are behaving in a way that fighters have for millenia...

I always related that to post-vietnam soldiers and the way so many of them utterly failed to re-intergrate with civilian life...

 

[kyser_soze]

I think that's the immediate comparison, but it's a historical thing too - Vietnam vets weren't the first to have problems reintegrating, but were the first to be 'noticed' IYSWIM.

 

[Random]

knew his craft though, knew it well. Check out White Plague and the submarine one. A skilled writer.

Sounds like the sort of stuff people used to say about Jeffrey Archer. Should never have been any sequels to Dune imo. Became as overblown as an overfed sand worm hybrid.

 

[DotCommunist]

Sounds like the sort of stuff people used to say about Jeffrey Archer. Should never have been any sequels to Dune imo. Became as overblown as an overfed sand worm hybrid.

well that's clearly wrong as Messiah is the best one. Repudiation of power ftw.

 

[Random]

well that's clearly wrong as Messiah is the best one. Repudiation of power ftw.

Engaging enough to get me to read the other ones, but nothing illustrates the law of diminishing returns as the later Dune novels.

 

[Fruitloop]

Rumours of Blackwater/Xe activities in Pakistan at the moment. They're up to their old tricks obviously, or perhaps some new ones.