Overview

"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."

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9780306817434

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Reviews

<b><i>Army Times, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times</i>, 11/24/08</b> <i>Big Boy Rules</i> is another eye opener and, in the end, a tear-inducer about the loose ties and loose management of contractors employees. <b><i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>, 11/28/08</b> If Jeremy Scahill's provocative <i>Blackwater</i> is an eye-opener about the political ties and big finances of one contractor, then <i>Big Boy Rules</i> is another eye-opener and in the end a tear-inducer about the loose ties and loose management of contractors employees <b><i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i>, 11/30/08</b> <i>Big Boy Rules</i> reads more like a novel than a newspaper as it weaves Cote's life into the larger story of the shoot-'em-up security contractors. <b><i>Seattle Post Intelligencer</i>, 12/5/08</b> An important, timely, scathing new book <b><i>Metro Spirit</i>, 12/08</b> Chilling, gripping and stunning in its delivery, method and detail A must-read book for any American the least bit concerned with the actions, reputation, and circumstances of American activity overseas.

"Army Times, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times, 11/24/08 ""Big Boy Rules is another eye opener -- and, in the end, a tear-inducer -- about the loose ties and loose management of contractors' employees."" San Francisco Chronicle, 11/28/08 ""If Jeremy Scahill's provocative Blackwater is an eye-opener about the political ties and big finances of one contractor, then Big Boy Rules is another eye-opener--and in the end a tear-inducer--about the loose ties and loose management of contractors' employees"" St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 11/30/08 ""Big Boy Rules reads more like a novel than a newspaper as it weaves Cote's life into the larger story of the shoot-'em-up security contractors."" Seattle Post Intelligencer, 12/5/08 ""An important, timely, scathing new book""Metro Spirit, 12/08 ""Chilling, gripping and stunning in its delivery, method and detail...A must-read book for any American the least bit concerned with the actions, reputation, and circumstances of American activity overseas."" Washington Post Book World, 12/14/08 ""The most vivid account to date of the misfits, thugs, and outright psychotics who kill with impunity under corporate flags...this book is consistently engaging and powerfully instructive."" Minneapolis Star Tribune ""Big Boy Rules [is] on the must-have list...Fainaru's skill lies in unwrapping the folly of the war on a personal level that is both enlightening and chilling."" Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 1/18/09 ""A valuable addition to the small but growing body of books on the privatization of warfare. His book is a gritty, ground-level examination of how the lines of accountability become blurred when a nation farms out an unpopular war to hired hands...Fainaru poses a host of compelling questions."" Thomas E. Ricks, senior military correspondent, The Washington Post, and author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003-05 ""Steve Fainaru tells a story that is at the heart of the war in Iraq: the U.S. military's unprecedented reliance on mercenaries. It is a dark tale that until now has remained largely untold, and is related brilliantly here. To understand this war, you must read this book.""Washington Times, 2/1/09 ""Compelling, brutal, disturbing.""American Author's Association ""Fainaru's detailed and emotional story about contract mercenaries fighting in Iraq is not only timely, but also presents a side of that war that needs to be shown...It certainly makes one stop and rethink the direction this country has taken with how this war and future wars will be fought...Entertaining and action filled...Brilliantly crafted.""Time Magazine, November 2008 ""[A] harrowing expose."" Penthouse, December 2008 ""If you read only one book about the war in Iraq, make it this one."" ""Metro Spirit"", 12/08 ""Chilling, gripping and stunning in its delivery, method and detail...A must-read book for any American the least bit concerned with the actions, reputation, and circumstances of American activity overseas."" ""San Francisco Chronicle"", 11/28/08 ""If Jeremy Scahill's provocative ""Blackwater"" is an eye-opener about the political ties and big finances of one contractor, then ""Big Boy Rules"" is another eye-opener--and in the end a tear-inducer--about the loose ties and loose management of contractors' employees"" ""St. Louis Post-Dispatch"", 11/30/08 """"Big Boy Rules"" reads more like a novel than a newspaper as it weaves Cote's life into the larger story of the shoot-'em-up security contractors."" ""Seattle Post Intelligencer"", 12/5/08 ""An important, timely, scathing new book"" ""Time Magazine"", November 2008 ""[A] harrowing expose."" ""Penthouse"", December 2008 ""If you read only one book about the war in Iraq, make it this one."" ""Army Times, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times"", 11/24/08 """"Big Boy Rules"" is another eye opener -- and, in the end, a tear-inducer -- about the loose ties and loose management of contractors' employees."" ""Washington Post Book World"", 12/14/08 ""The most vivid account to date of the misfits, thugs, and outright psychotics who kill with impunity under corporate flags...this book is consistently engaging and powerfully instructive."" ""Minneapolis Star Tribune"" """"Big Boy Rules"" [is] on the must-have list...Fainaru's skill lies in unwrapping the folly of the war on a personal level that is both enlightening and chilling."" ""Norfolk Virginian-Pilot"", 1/18/09 ""A valuable addition to the small but growing body of books on the privatization of warfare. His book is a gritty, ground-level examination of how the lines of accountability become blurred when a nation farms out an unpopular war to hired hands...Fainaru poses a host of compelling questions."" ""Washington Post"", 3/15/09 ""Compelling realism and documented sources. [Fainaru] is a master of nonfiction storytelling, with an appropriate blend of first-hand action accounts, engaging interviews, and keen observations...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...Expect to feel deep emotion, expect to cry, expect to enjoy the truthful and talented writing."" ""Reference and Research Book News"", November 2009 ""Reveals the dark truths behind the largest private force in the history of American warfare."" ""Washington Times"", 2/1/09 ""Compelling, brutal, disturbing."" Thomas E. Ricks, senior military correspondent, ""The Washington Post"", and author of ""Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003-05"" ""Steve Fainaru tells a story that is at the heart of the war in Iraq: the U.S. military's unprecedented reliance on mercenaries. It is a dark tale that until now has remained largely untold, and is related brilliantly here. To understand this war, you must read this book."" American Author's Association ""Fainaru's detailed and emotional story about contract mercenaries fighting in Iraq is not only timely, but also presents a side of that war that needs to be shown...It certainly makes one stop and rethink the direction this country has taken with how this war and future wars will be fought...Entertaining and action filled...Brilliantly crafted."" ""Washington Times,"" 2/1/09 ""Compelling, brutal, disturbing."" ""Time Magazine,"" November 2008 ""[A] harrowing expose."" ""Penthouse,"" December 2008 ""If you read only one book about the war in Iraq, make it this one."" ""Army Times, Marine Corps Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times,"" 11/24/08 """"Big Boy Rules"" is another eye opener -- and, in the end, a tear-inducer -- about the loose ties and loose management of contractors' employees."" ""Washington Post Book World,"" 12/14/08 ""The most vivid account to date of the misfits, thugs, and outright psychotics who kill with impunity under corporate flags...this book is consistently engaging and powerfully instructive."" ""Minneapolis Star Tribune"" """"Big Boy Rules"" [is] on the must-have list...Fainaru's skill lies in unwrapping the folly of the war on a personal level that is both enlightening and chilling."" ""Norfolk Virginian-Pilot,"" 1/18/09 ""A valuable addition to the small but growing body of books on the privatization of warfare. His book is a gritty, ground-level examination of how the lines of accountability become blurred when a nation farms out an unpopular war to hired hands...Fainaru poses a host of compelling questions."" ""Metro Spirit,"" 12/08 ""Chilling, gripping and stunning in its delivery, method and detail...A must-read book for any American the least bit concerned with the actions, reputation, and circumstances of American activity overseas."" ""Washington Post Book World,"" 12/14/08 ""The most vivid account to date of the misfits, thugs, and outright psychotics who kill with impunity under corporate flags...this book is consistently engaging and powerfully instructive."" ""Minneapolis Star Tribune"" """"Big Boy Rules"" [is] on the must-have list...Fainaru's skill lies in unwrapping the folly of the war on a personal level that is both enlightening and chilling."" ""Metro Spirit,"" 12/08 ""Chilling, gripping and stunning in its delivery, method and detail...A must-read book for any American the least bit concerned with the actions, reputation, and circumstances of American activity overseas."" ""Seattle Post Intelligencer,""12/08 ""An important, timely, scathing new book."" ""San Francisco Chronicle,"" 11/28/08 ""If Jeremy Scahill's provocative ""Blackwater"" is an eye-opener about the political ties and big finances of one contractor, then ""Big Boy Rules"" is another eye-opener--and in the end a tear-inducer--about the loose ties and loose management of contractors' employees"" ""St. Louis Post-Dispatch,"" 11/30/08 """"Big Boy Rules"" reads more like a novel than a newspaper as it weaves Cote's life into the larger story of the shoot-'em-up security contractors."" ""Seattle Post Intelligencer,"" 12/5/08 ""An important, timely, scathing new book"" ""Time Magazine,"" 11/14/08 ""[A] harrowing expose."" ""Kirkus,"" 10/15/08 ""Fainaru takes to heart the old journalistic adage, 'show, don't tell, ' as he portrays men seeking to escape difficult personal circumstances, who crave adventure even if it means losing their lives...An informative, dramatic look at a significant, often unexamined, aspect of contemporary military culture."" Thomas E. Ricks ""Steve Fainaru tells a story that is at the heart of the war in Iraq: the U.S. military's unprecedented reliance on mercenaries. It is a dark tale that until now has remained largely untold, and is related brilliantly here. To understand this war, you must read this book."""

Expanding on his Pulitzer Prize - winning series in the Washington Post, Fainaru profiles employees of for-profit companies engaged in the Iraq War.With the all-volunteer army perennially short of personnel, Fainaru writes, more military work is being outsourced. The mercenary companies are primarily concerned with minimizing costs and maximizing profit, in his view, and as a result don't always provide their employees with the best equipment. They don't bother to display much concern for the men either. When one of the soldiers spotlighted here died, no representative of the company attended the funeral. Their employers do assure these soldiers that they aren't subject to the same international, military, U.S., or Iraqi laws that members of the regular military are. We were always told, from the very beginning, if for some reason something happened and they were trying to prosecute us under Iraqi law, they would put you in the back of a car and sneak you out of the country in the middle of the night, recalls mercenary Chuck Sheppard. When employees of Blackwater USA shot and killed three Iraqi security guards, possibly without provocation, Fainaru depicts American officials conducting a perfunctory investigation and interviewing no eyewitnesses, despite complaints from the Iraqi government. The book's strongest sections describe the mercenaries' cowboy culture and capture scenes at home that reveal the influences shaping their personas. Fainaru takes to heart the old journalistic adage, show, don't tell, as he portrays men seeking to escape difficult personal circumstances, who crave adventure even if it means losing their lives. The battlefield scenes, by contrast, are adequate, but not as evocative as those in the books of his Post colleague Thomas Ricks (Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006) or New York Times correspondent Dexter Filkins (The Forever War, 2008).An informative, dramatic look at a significant, often unexamined, aspect of contemporary military culture. (Kirkus Reviews)

<b><i>Washington Post Book World</i>, 12/14/08</b> The most vivid account to date of the misfits, thugs, and outright psychotics who kill with impunity under corporate flags...this book is consistently engaging and powerfully instructive. <b><i>Minneapolis Star Tribune</i></b> <i>Big Boy Rules</i> [is] on the must-have list...Fainaru's skill lies in unwrapping the folly of the war on a personal level that is both enlightening and chilling. </p><b><i>Norfolk Virginian-Pilot</i>, 1/18/09</b> A valuable addition to the small but growing body of books on the privatization of warfare. His book is a gritty, ground-level examination of how the lines of accountability become blurred when a nation farms out an unpopular war to hired hands...Fainaru poses a host of compelling questions.

American Author's Association<br> Fainaru's detailed and emotional story about contract mercenaries fighting in Iraq is not only timely, but also presents a side of that war that needs to be shown...It certainly makes one stop and rethink the direction this country has taken with how this war and future wars will be fought...Entertaining and action filled...Brilliantly crafted.

Author Information

Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru is the winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for his coverage of the Iraq war. This is his third book.

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