by Steve Fainaru
|
| List Price: | $26.00 |
| Amazon Price: | $17.16 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $8.84 (34%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $12.99 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
There are tens of thousands of them in Iraq. They work for companies with exotic and ominous-sounding names, like Crescent Security Group, Triple Canopy, and Blackwater Worldwide. They travel in convoys of multicolored pickups fortified with makeshift armor, belt-fed machine guns, frag grenades, and even shoulder-fired missiles. They protect everything from the U.S. ambassador and American generals to shipments of Frappuccino bound for Baghdad’s Green Zone. They kill Iraqis, and Iraqis kill them.
And the only law they recognize is Big Boy Rules.
From a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter comes a harrowing journey into Iraq’s parallel war. Part MadMax, part Fight Club, it is a world filled with “private security contractors”—the U.S. government’s sanitized name for tens of thousands of modern mercenaries, or mercs, who roam Iraq with impunity, doing jobs that the overstretched and understaffed military can’t or won’t do.
They are men like Jon Coté, a sensitive former U.S. army paratrooper and University of Florida fraternity brother who realizes too late that he made a terrible mistake coming back to Iraq. And Paul Reuben, a friendly security company medic who has no formal medical training and lacks basic supplies, like tourniquets. They are part of America’s “other” army—some patriotic, some desperate, some just out for cash or adventure. And some who disappear into the void that is Iraq and are never seen again.
Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru traveled with a group of private security contractors to find out what motivates them to put their lives in danger every day. He joined Jon Coté and the men of Crescent Security Group as they made their way through Iraq—armed to the teeth, dodging not only bombs and insurgents but also their own Iraqi colleagues. Just days after Fainaru left to go home, five men of Crescent Security Group were kidnapped in broad daylight on Iraq’s main highway. How the government and the company responded reveals the dark truths behind the largest private force in the history of American warfare. . . .
With 16 pages of photographs
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 What was the authors motive by omitting the whole truth?, 2008-11-16
I guess one who doe's not know or who has never experienced Iraq, would give all stars to this book. Yes it is a good read. However the author stopped short and left out key details on certain subject matter. I got the feeling it was an effort to extort a certain response from the readers. Some of the stories told did not happen, some did not happen even close to the way he discribe. Which may not matter much. However the omission of key details is a definite attempt to produce a desired impact on the reader. For example, the author remarked negatively numerous times about the armor of the vehicles. He left out that the armor worked. Why? He stated that Paul walked up to him and out of the blue, Paul said he was an alcoholic. That did not happen, so what was the authors reason for writing that? He condemed Crescent Security for not manning the the convoy with appropriate security. Why did he fail to tell the part that those 7 left more than an hour earlier than thier scheduled time and did not inform the other 20 Iraqi security members. There many other statements and twisted facts the author was grossly incorrect about. So I must question the acuracy of the other parts of the book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Awesome book!, 2008-11-13
This is a brilliant book. Steve Fainaru puts a very human face on this largely unknown aspect of the war in Iraq after spending considerable time with numerous mercenaries in the field. It is a personal account as well; Fainaru grew close to several mercs who later were abducted and killed, and at the same time he was dealing with his brother's potential incarceration (for refusing to reveal the source of grand jury testimony in the BALCO steroids investigation) and his father's death from lung cancer. The way he dovetails all this is quite skillful and powerful. Fainaru doesn't hide his affection for the victims in Iraq and their families back home, but he doesn't hide their warts, either. Fainaru won a Pulitzer Prize for his stories in the Washington Post on this topic, and it's easy to see why. "Big Boy Rules" is truly an amazing job of reporting and writing--a very compelling read.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
The truth is being told......, 2008-11-09
I finished reading "Big Boy Rules" last night. I hope the Cote, Young, Munns, Reuben, Withrow, and Nussbaumer families find comfort in knowing the truth is out, and the story of their sons, brothers, fathers, husbands, and friends is being told.
The book is very well written. As despicable as the outcome is, Steve Fainaru did a fantastic job of capturing the life of Jon, the strength of the Cote family, and the corruption that led to this tragedy.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The Public Must Know Private Contracting Engagement Rules, 2008-11-03
This story must be told! The public may never be aware of the '...mayhem of Iraq...'. My son Jonathon is the main character in this book. Jon was a US Army veteran, 82nd Airborne Unit, who did tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq. His story is parallel to many other Americans who are attracted to the contracting life in Iraq whether it be for the money, the excitement or the fact that they don't feel they fit in anymore after having served in the war. The United States is putting hired help behind the front lines to ease the burden of its understaffed and overworked armed forces. That's the price we pay for having an all volunteer military. By paying civilians to handle tasks previously handled by the military, the administration is freeing up U.S. troops to do the actual fighting. But the use of contractors also hides the true costs of war. Their dead aren't added to official body counts. Their duties and profits are hidden by closed mouthed executives who won't give details to Congress as their coffers and roles swell. It is estimated that there is one contractor for every 10 foreign soldiers in Iraq; 10 times the private involvement in the first Gulf War in which I served. The bigger the contractor, the more the influence they have to establish the rules of engagement there. Who could have conceived the results factually detailed in this book. You will enjoy it!
Jon's story is at www.FreeCote.com.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|