What a Mercenary Force Means for You
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by Jan Khysl
What a Mercenary Force Means for You
The Reality Czech
Jan Khysl (2 Mar. 2009)
In the ever-growing divide between Ivan Hat and radim, the main issue has been economics. Ivan Hat calls for government support in exchange for fixed prices while radim wants to continue the policy of the only government assistance coming in the form of loans. I have dabbled in eRepublik's economics from time to time but I can honestly say that this time I don't care. I am not involved in the economics of our country in any form besides as a worker. I do not foresee an economic doom if either candidate is elected. I can see that both candidates have merits and demerits when it comes to this issue. There is a much more important issue at hand.
Ivan Hat has proclaimed that if elected he intends to establish a government supported "Czech Mercenary Corps." As far as I know, this addition to the Czech military is only championed by Ivan and Franz Kafka. Honestly, I too dabbled once in an idea not unlike the Mercenary Corps but abandoned it when I saw the many flaws in the idea.
The supposed strengths of a Czech Mercenary Corps is as follows:
1.) Czech citizens will be able to gain combat experience
2.) The Czech government can partake in conflicts without "officially" being involved in them
3.) It will generate income because countries or citizens will pay to have the mercenaries fight alongside them
Each of these points has a severe logical flaw.
1.) Czech citizens will be able to gain combat experience
This is true. Czech citizens should try and partake in conflict as it: generates personal wealth in the form of medals, increases experience, and gives a deeper knowledge of the mechanics and tactics of eRepublik warfare. Czech citizens like myself and Franz Kafka have left the country and funded our own expeditions for precisely these reasons. Ironically, Ivan Hat has been critical of these "walkabouts" and has pointed out that they reduce the productivity and political activity of our nation. Supposedly, a mercenary force would offset this loss of productivity but that will be discussed later.
2.) The Czech government can partake in conflicts without "officially" being involved in them
This is perhaps the most dangerous flaw in the thinking behind the Czech Mercenary Corps. It has been suggested that funds could be laundered through a third party so as to make it look as though the Czech government wasn't directly funding soldiers. Having a secret military that travels the world fighting in whatever conflict it can join is a mistake. It has already been discussed several times that a Czech Mercenary Corps would be funded by the government, receive funds from whatever side it was supporting, and distribute the funds to its members. All it would take is one disloyal mercenary (or really, anyone who reads our media) to reveal the true nature of our mercenary corps and suddenly our independence would be in danger. Imagine if Poland and Germany went to war and the Poles hired our force. Should the Germans get wind of such an act they would have a reason to invade us. Anyone who has been in eRepublik long enough knows that it takes little to legitimize a war and surrendering our neutrality could certainly bring it to us.
3.) It will generate income because countries or citizens will pay to have the mercenaries fight alongside them
A Czech Mercenary Corps is not going to be very profitable for several reasons: the cost of moving tickets, the cost of weapons, and the fact that the Czech Republic lacks powerful soldiers. Eventually, we might reach a point where a mercenary corps is cost-effective but not for a very long time. Most active, experienced Czech citizens are involved with in the Congress meaning a Czech Mercenary Corps would consist mostly of low-strength new citizens. The dropout rate is highest among such citizens and their impact in a battle would be negligible even when supplied with weaponry. In order to make an even moderately successful mercenary corps we would have to see around half the Congress resign and sign up. Even then, the cost of moving tickets and weapons would be high and we would suffer a loss of productivity and political activity. There is simply no way that a Czech Mercenary Corps would be able to pay for itself for quite sometime.
The most important point I want to make clear is that a Czech Mercenary Corps is an abandonment of our neutrality. Our neutrality is what has kept us a free nation for so long. We walk the line too much already. Actively taking part in conflicts across the world is going to make us enemies. There is no way to make this secret and no way to make it profitable. Gaining combat experience is good but doing so in this manner is too dangerous.
I do no think radim will make the best president. I never did. Had he and Ivan Hat been running solely on economic issues, I do not know which way I would vote. But because of Ivan's support of this dangerous idea, I support radim. Our neutrality is too much to risk with this idea and there is an alternative:
As Minister of Defense, I have supported the same idea for gaining experience as our president: participation in "friendly wars." All around the world there are conflicts that are not done for conquest and revenge but for other reasons. Not long ago, the United Kingdom released Brussels from its control, what followed was a friendly war where participants gained experience and the result was always known. The Germans and Hun "friendly wars" take place all the time in the eRepublik world and we can gain the same experience in them as we would in a real war without threatening our independence. This is the way forward for the Czech Military.
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Comments
Good article. I see you´re really great expert about our army. If I win, I will work with your opinions... .
Perhaps my plan needs a little changing. Thank you for the informed article. I felt like the development of a mercenary corps. would fix a problem that needed to fix, but instead it has opened up new problems that will put our neutrality and our freedom at risk.
You have opened my eyes, Jan. The main purpose of my party is to keep the Czech Republic neutral and I somehow missed the huge hypocracy in my statement.
I will put the idea of a true Mercenary Corps. on indefinite hold. The whole issue with the military needs to be resolved. If I am elected I hope we can work to find a way to work this out.
I'm glad to hear you've reconsidered. Unfortunately, it's going to make the 5th that much harder for me..
Very good analysis. I have to both wholeheartedly agree with you and strongly disagree with you. The way you describe the mercinary force would surely fail for the reasons you describe. However I do not feel that your description fairly illustrates the kind of force that I have been advocating for.
The advantage of a co-ordinated force is that it will be able to choose when to interevene at best advantage. Not a force for hire wherever and whenever without any consideration to balance the potential costs and benefits. For example involvement in conflicts in our near neighbourhood without agreement of parties involved would be very unwise no matter what the financial and experience benefits.
In the example of Poland and Germany going to war, there would be many strategic consequences for us - but participating in the war for money alone would be foolish.
I know many have suggested it might make us money. Actually this is unlikley as there are plenty of mercinaries who'll go in for the experience and take a loss. So I would not oversell the amount of cost recovery we can realistically make.
In sum - a mercinary army of some form and mandate is necessary. I am therefore disappointed that Ivan has backed away from any further development of a mercinary force - I think that the discussion up to this point has been a healthy one and will assist us to strike to correct balance. The actvities of such a force do have to be balanced against productivity and political participation concerns at home (as Ivan has rightly pointed out). We need responsible management of this force and skillful negotation with the parties involved.
Right now we have great powers arising on our borders and the evidence is that their ambitions to our territory are benevolent. But we know how quickly an election or other event can change this.
Let not the next opportunity to gain combat experience be at the gates to Prague!
FK
Picking our fights would of course mean a decrease in income making a mercenary force even more government supported. It doesn't matter what "hot war" we enter, we will make enemies that is an inevitable consequence of fighting in anything but "friendly wars."
For instance, it is no secret that you are an Israeli sympathizer. Now let's suppose we had an active mercenary corps that got involved in the conflict. Had the Turks gotten wind of this it may have seemed like no big deal: we share no border with Turkey.
You seem to make the assumption that this makes us safe. That by avoiding conflicts with our neighbors we can use them as shields. This is not the case. The Turks could just as easily organize a political take-over of our country the next time congressional elections roll around. They could impeach our president, steal our gold, and throw our economy into total chaos.
Borders are not the only thing we need to look out for. In a world where most of the wars are fought between Peace and Atlantis, we really can't be too careful. If you can name a conflict that is not a "friendly war" that would leave us free of retribution I will gladly eat my words and enlist for this force.
I do not think it is helpful to begin naming wars. The planning for interventions comes after we have decided on the basic principles.
I accept your arguments and your case is compelling. I simply feel that in some instance we could prosper without attracting undue displeasure.
I doubt my sympathies with eIsrael will attract negative attention of eTurkey. You will note that I have only expressed open support for eIsrael whilst outside of government - as Foreign Minister under Red Duck's first administration it would have been improper to express such views.
Moreover I have not advocated that we participate militarily in every struggle. For example in eIsrael's independence war not even I left our country to join the war. I had responsibilities to my party back in eCzech Republic to prioritise. And ever since the founding of the nation of eIsrael I have campaigned for symbolic assistance and co-operation between our nations.
It would be an incredibly spiteful eTurkey that stages a political takeover simply because we donated 5 gold to eIsrael!
I felt I needed a right of reply to your article, I think I've had it - best we end this discourse here, after all we agree on many other fronts.
Respectfully,
Franz Kafka