The SEIGE of JADOTVILLE on Netflix

[Clark Howard]

Another sterling performance by our friends, the French. The muz are about to hand them their a$$es in their own back yard.

[Art]

I saw this last nite and enjoyed it. Equipment went from very authentic to questionable. The F4 behind Hamerskjold's plane has already been mentioned. To make up for that, the bad guys were supported by a Fouga CM170 Magister armed jet trainer and sure enough, there was a CM 170 supporting the evil Katangans.

That the bad guys had mixed weapons is not unusual, I can't imagine the Irish having a mix of No 4 Enfields and FALs but I guess it is possible. Complaints about it being a WW II weapon aside, that was exactly the right situation for a couple of Vickers guns. The silliest thing was the sniper giving up his No4 sniper rifle to shoot the civilian bad guy with a Bren gun with iron sights. Had to have a Hathcock moment I guess. Also, like Jackson in "Saving Private Ryan" the Irish sniper was left handed...maybe that's a trendy thing now .

On the "mercs" These guys were French Government contractors in the movie (whether they were in real life who knows.) If that's the case "Big Charlie" was ahead of his time. Today "contractors" (ex servicemen in the employ of their country as civilian combatants) are common, I understand we actually have more of them than regular military in Afghanistan now. The give a country "plausible deniability" when needed and if they're killed it doesn't carry the same political baggage as when a regular soldier is. The Rooskies had a bunch of their contractors shot up when they were in the wrong place at the wrong time in Syria not too long ago.

I checked on the casualties, the contractors/mercenaries and the militia suffered almost 1,400 dead and wounded for a cost of about a half a dozen wounded Irishmen. Remarkable that with all that lead flying around none of those Irish boys were killed.