Book Review - Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill

Synopsis:  Meet BLACKWATER USA, the world's most secretive and powerful mercenary firm. Based in the wilderness of North Carolina, it is the fastest-growing private army on the planet with forces capable of carrying out regime change throughout the world. Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq and yet we know almost nothing about the firm's quasi-military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and inside the US. Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian mega-millionaire ex- Navy Seal named Erik Prince, the scion of a wealthy conservative family that bankrolls far-right-wing causes.

Blackwater is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror.

First Line:  "The world was a very different place on September 10, 2001, when Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the podium at the Pentagon to deliver one of his first major addresses as Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush."

Random Quote:  "A short while later, Scott Helvenston was behind the wheel of the Pajero driving down Highway 10, heading straight for perhaps the most dangerous city in the world in which four lightly armed CIA-looking Americans wearing wraparound sunglasses could find themselves.  It was about 9:30 a.m., and the city of mosques was awake and waiting."

Review:  Jeremy Scahill has an ax to grind and a certain amount of bias shows through in this expose of Blackwater's corporate army.  That said, the book is well-researched, reasonably well-written and will definitely switch your paranoia on.

Fallujah - Image via Wikipedia

The book takes you through the creation of Blackwater and the background of its CEO, Eric Prince, a neo-conservative Evangelical Christian who believes that he is fighting the Crusades.  It's clear that Scahill believes that Blackwater is evil and I can't say that I disagree with him.  I'm pretty uncomfortable with the notion of outsourcing wars and mercenary armies make me think uncomfortably of the Italian city states in the 10th to 15th century and their constant state of warfare funded by citizens and waged by mercenary bands.

I do have some quibbles with this book.  The focus is almost entirely on Blackwater's involvement in Iraq with a few ancillary chapters on their involvement in other localities.  I would have liked a broader view of the company and its activities.  While his chapter on Blackwater's man on the ground in Chile is interesting, Scahill misses an incredible opportunity to trace the history of US involvement in Central and South America and the teaching of torture at the Academy of the Americas and frankly doesn't do a good enough job of explicating these mercenary's ties to the Pinochet government and why that is problematic.  There is another missed opportunity in the chapter on Blackwater after Katrina - to observe that we had boots on the ground with guns on the Gulf Coast before there was humanitarian aid is disturbing, but again I would have liked more information about this and an analysis of how outsourcing is impacting our disaster relief efforts.  Lastly, I found myself wishing Scahill was a business reporter - I think there's a big story in where the money is coming from and where it's going and I don't think this is explored well.

Overall this is an interesting book, but very topical.  Three years after its publication it is beginning to show its age and in another three years it'll be creaky.  I think Scahill has done a great job of investigative reporting, but less well on contextualizing his subject matter.
Reading Challenges:  2010 100+ Reading Challenge, 2010 A to Z Reading Challenge, 2010 Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge

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