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Commuting to war
BIG BOY RULES:
America’s Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq
By Steve Fainaru
288 pp. Da Capo Press $26.00
Reviewed by Wisteria Leigh
The cover of Big Boy Rules displays a bald, brawny soldier, biceps bulging, wrapped in a belt of bullets clutching his weapon while standing lookout through the sunroof of an SUV. Not exactly a picture to bring tears to anyone’s eyes. When you read Big Boy Rules, keep that vision in mind, but remember, I foretold your tears.
Steve Fainaru makes clear his position that the United States government’s use of private companies to replace and support US military is “an ugly business ... perhaps the ugliest business ...” Of the mercenaries, he says, “You didn’t have to draft them, or count them, or run them through Congress. You didn’t even have to know they were there.”
Various U.S government agencies hire the companies that hire the mercenaries. Fainaru reports that as of 2008 there were 190,000 contractors from various companies doing some of the most perilous and life threatening work in Iraq. Companies like Crescent Security and Blackwater hire team leaders who act as mission commanders. Fainaru spent time inside Iraq with these private contractors hired to protect people, places, and the moving convoys.
Why are they in Iraq? Why did they sign up? Why don’t we hear about these fighters? Why aren’t their deaths included in body counts? Fainaru answers these questions with compelling realism and documented sources. He is a master of nonfiction storytelling, with an appropriate blend of first-hand action accounts, engaging interviews, and keen observations.
Fainaru put his own life on the line in an unstable environment where mercenaries from many countries pepper the landscape. They commute to work—commute to war, really—from their home base in Kuwait, as odd as it seems. Once they cross the border into Iraq, the group sees a desert landscape with outcroppings of burned out vehicles and twisted debris.
Fainaru combines interviews with mercenaries who work for Crescent Security Group and other primary source information—telephone conversations, email, and letters— from inside the mercenary world, to tell the story.
Men are driven to become mercenaries for various reasons: many want to escape civilian life, others are not suited for the regular military, and others have left the military and miss it. Above all, the driving factor to sign on to do this job is money. Estimates are reported that a mercenary can pull down between $25,000 to $75,000 per month, sometimes more.
Mercenaries are always on guard, always ready to fire. It takes little provocation, the adrenaline pumps them up, and fear for their lives is paramount. Kill or be killed. Battles are not always waged against the enemy. Fainaru uncovers the big boy rules that fall outside those of the United States military and outside Iraqi law. The only rules they have are in their contracts. The image of the ugly American is often perpetuated by mercenaries who kill innocent people. They are a microcosmic tightly-knit team of tenacious ruthless men who shoot first and file false reports later.
During one fateful mission, Crescent Security Group escorted a large convoy of thirty-seven trucks with five security vehicles, which they considered grossly understaffed. An ambush occurred. In the aftermath, one Australian and four American mercenaries were kidnapped. No one knows what happened to them. Crescent Security Group received little communication from the kidnappers, and the US military had no reason to try to intervene to save the kidnapped mercenaries. It is gut wrenching to read the accounts of the families of the kidnapped “mercs” as they suffer months of speculation waiting for any news about their sons.
The author also reveals secrets of the private companies that the United States hires to help fight the war but won’t acknowledge publicly. One company, considered the pinnacle of all, is Blackwater, which claims to have made over one billion dollars on the war by the end of 2007. Crescent Security Group, located in Kuwait City, is a fully equipped military central command started by owner Frank Picco with $10 million dollars; he is now getting that in return every month.
Fainaru traveled to Iraq eleven times between 2004 and 2007 working on this book, which began as a project for The Washington Post. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. This razor-sharp, on-the-edge account will seize your attention and hold it. Your desire to learn more will keep you turning pages. Expertly crafted and organized into a well-documented report of the lives and deaths of mercenaries in Iraq, the book is grisly, graphic, and often gruesome; the images are not softened to suit a reader’s need for rose-colored glasses. Expect to feel deep emotion, expect to cry, expect to enjoy the truthful and talented writing of Steve Fainaru.
Ms. Leigh is a writer/reviewer who has her own blog: Bookworm’s Dinner. She writes reviews for Historical Novels Review, Blog Critics Magazine, Book Browse, Library Thing, LMC Magazine, and others. She has degrees in music, elementary education, library media, and is currently studying American history. She has a special interest in rescuing retired greyhounds, often providing temporary foster housing.
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