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A review by iacobus
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
2.0
I first looked at this book in 2007 and decided to pass after a short flip through. It seemed a bit like a hatchet job. A few years go by and I decided to give it a shot.
It seems like I was right.
The book presents a detailed documentation of all the bad things Blackwater has done or has been accused of doing, even when the proof is in the reader connecting the dots. Scahill has a political and ideological objection to Blackwater and this pervades the book.
The book felt flat as an analysis of Blackwater and the policy that leads to PMC. Is Blackwater/PMC a better solution to national natural disaster than a federal/state response? Is it better for the government to pass the liability and risk for private corporations then assume it themselves in war zones? Is it better/cheaper for the US armed forces to use PMC for logistics/guard tasks and increase the fraction of soldiers that are "soldiers?"
The book never gets into this issues. It's more interested in detailing how everything Blackwater has done has been bad or how all the people are "right wing Christian zealots."
On the surface, I'm sympathetic to Scahill's political views but his ideological stances on war, corporations, profit, anyone who is Christian, etc just left me sour.
On a final note: the writing is terrible. There are words that don't make sense where used (such as a 180 degree scope of fire), some inconsistency in language that highlights Scahill's bias (repeatedly calls an M4 carbine, a rifle, a machine gun) and is generally repetitive. Quotes are trotted out multiple times ("do for the pentagon what FedEx did to the post office" and slight variations seemed to occur ever 30 pages) and whole paragraphs/discussions seem to recur.
I'd recommend passing on this book. The same information would come from a Wikipedia search with much less bias. The book provides no meaningful policy analysis or insight beyond a partisan chronology.
It seems like I was right.
The book presents a detailed documentation of all the bad things Blackwater has done or has been accused of doing, even when the proof is in the reader connecting the dots. Scahill has a political and ideological objection to Blackwater and this pervades the book.
The book felt flat as an analysis of Blackwater and the policy that leads to PMC. Is Blackwater/PMC a better solution to national natural disaster than a federal/state response? Is it better for the government to pass the liability and risk for private corporations then assume it themselves in war zones? Is it better/cheaper for the US armed forces to use PMC for logistics/guard tasks and increase the fraction of soldiers that are "soldiers?"
The book never gets into this issues. It's more interested in detailing how everything Blackwater has done has been bad or how all the people are "right wing Christian zealots."
On the surface, I'm sympathetic to Scahill's political views but his ideological stances on war, corporations, profit, anyone who is Christian, etc just left me sour.
On a final note: the writing is terrible. There are words that don't make sense where used (such as a 180 degree scope of fire), some inconsistency in language that highlights Scahill's bias (repeatedly calls an M4 carbine, a rifle, a machine gun) and is generally repetitive. Quotes are trotted out multiple times ("do for the pentagon what FedEx did to the post office" and slight variations seemed to occur ever 30 pages) and whole paragraphs/discussions seem to recur.
I'd recommend passing on this book. The same information would come from a Wikipedia search with much less bias. The book provides no meaningful policy analysis or insight beyond a partisan chronology.