Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq

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Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq

Editorial Review

Travelling in Iraq with a group of US security contractors - mercenaries or mercs - a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter reveals in gritty detail the men who live by Big Boy Rules. A parallel army lives on the margins of the Iraq war - nearly 100,000 armed men, invisible yet in plain sight, doing jobs the overstretched and understaffed military can't or won't. The US media call them 'security contractors'. They call themselves 'mercs' and operate under their own rules. Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Steve Fainaru travelled with several groups of security contractors to find out what motivates them to put their lives in danger every day.What emerges is a searing, revealing and sometimes darkly funny look at the men who live and work in the battlefields of Iraq: some are desperate, some are confused and some are just out for a lark. Some disappear into the void that is Iraq and are never seen again. It's not a pretty picture, but it's brutally real and shockingly honest. "Big Boy Rules" is an unforgettable leap into the mayhem of Iraq and the dark recesses of the minds of American policy makers and the warriors they hire.

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
• PSD-Iraq
  Steve's book provides an excellent overview to the ongoing issue of outsourcing security to private for profit companies. Having worked the Emergency Operations Center-Movement Cell (EOC-MC) at Balad/Anaconda in 2005, I was aware of the dispute between the military and civilian PSD companies. There were many instances of conflict based on doctrinal operational standards to include the "hearts and minds" component of the overall mission in Iraq.
  The outsourcing of security under the Bush-Cheney and Rice... more info
• Ugly
  Steve Fainaru's new book Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq is an eye-opening story of what is being done in the name of America in Iraq. The need for private security contracting became clear early on in Iraq, as our volunteer army was spread thin. Fainaru presents what this contracting entails, using one company, Crescent Security Group, and one contractor, Jon Cote, as his primary focus. What Fainaru describes is a degree of lawlessness that will lead to the discomfort of most readers,... more info
• Powerful book, a story that needs to be told.
  Ironic title.. It should have been titled 'No Rules!'. I was blown away at the total lack of regard for human life on both sides of this issue. Well written tragic story.
• Big Boy Rules
  This book is not only true, but is still currently in the news. The recent charges against 14 of the mercenaries for killing innocent civilians (women and children) will keep this story on the front pages for quite some time to come. As for the writing itself , the author won a pulitzer prize for the story. What more needs to be said? I live very near one of the men in the story so I had a special interest in reading it. It is a book for all to read regardless of your views on the war. You will find things... more info

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