Blackwater

Solidly written examination of the rise of Blackwater literally from the primordial right-wing ooze of North Carolina to its heights as the praetorian guard of the Neocons in in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and New Orleans.

Although wrapping itself in the flag of patriotism and basking in the light of god, Blackwater's true purpose was profiteering, in particular milking the tit of the illegal wars of the Bush administration. Between greed and incompetence Blackwater managed to managed to get their own people killed on more than one occasion, most notably in Fallujah. Nonetheless Blackwater fit perfectly in the Neocon plan to privatize the military to maximize profit and minimize accountability.

While not exactly a potboiler, the book is organized clearly and concisely and written in a straightforward manner that reads quickly.

Not sure that this one needs my review but here goes. Do you want to scare yourself silly with the notion that there is an openly religious far right private army operating with relative impunity and mass amounts of public funding? If so, this one is going to be the book for you. Are you interested in corporate history and looking for the history of Blackwater? This one might not really be your jam. Don't get me wrong, there is history in there but it's feels like this book was really meant to drive home the point that this situation is dangerous.

It wasn't an unpleasant read but the tone and style have already aged.

You go into the book thinking Erik Prince is Darth Vader.

He's not. He's more akin to Director Krennic: a manipulator of corrupt institutions that simply don't value life.

The real shock of Scahill's excellent coverage is just how banal the evil of the mercenary business is. Much like imperialist and colonial military dogma, the expansion of the private security contractors–mercenaries–boils down to exploitation and indifference. Exploitation of government policy to procure highly suspect security contracts and indifference towards the lives of the foreign populations affected by private militaries that are not beholden to account for war crimes.