Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army

Jeremy Scahill. Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. New York: Nation Books, 2007

Reviewed by T. Hatch

What happens when you mix the Christo fascist ideology of the Council for National Policy with the zeal of Donald Rumsfeld’s drive to privatize as much of the Defense Department as possible? The short answer is “private military companies” like Blackwater whose mercenary services are essential to both preserving the occupation of Iraq and corporate profits.

Erik Prince, ex-Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, sees his company as a necessary and highly profitable adjunct to the US military. Author Jeremy Scahill is not quite as generous in his assessment: “What Blackwater seemingly advocates and envisions is a private army of God-fearing patriots, well paid and devoted to the agenda of U.S. hegemony – supported by far lower paid cannon fodder, foot soldiers from Third World countries, many of which have legacies of brutal U.S.-sponsored regimes or death squads.”

As recent arguments in the US House and Senate demonstrate, there is much squeamishness when the full implications of an operation like Blackwater’s are more closely examined. In addition to the issue of criminal liability, when trigger happy mercenaries are allowed to run amok, there is also the question of immunity from tort liability. Blackwater’s legal team has argued that Blackwater should be immune from civil causes of action in Iraq and elsewhere. By implication the government would foot the bill for contractors killed in war zones and thus privatize profits while making the risk a public liability. It appears as if it pays to be patriotic.

Four Reviews from Leslie Madsen-Brooks '97 ..

Leslie Madsen-Brooks is the Coordinator for Faculty and TA Programs at The Teaching Resource Center at U.C. Davis and a Grinnell alumna, class of 1997.

The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian. San Francisco: McSweeney's Books, 2006
Smith Memorial PS3551.D75 C55x 2006
What happens when the entire world floods and all that remains is a specially-equipped, floating children’s hospital with 700 sick children, some of their families, and hospital staff? This book offers one vision of a post-apocalyptic world. It’s a long and quiet read, not a page-turner, but is especially thoughtful on the role of families (and their tragedies) in shaping people’s lives.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. New York: Riverhead Books, 2007
PS3608.O832 K58 2007
One of the best books I’ve read in a long time. Not for the faint of heart, this novel begins in 1960s and 1970s Afghanistan and takes us almost through the present day from the perspective of women and children.

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier. New York: Random House, 2006
Smith Memorial PS3556.R3599 T48 2006
I’m halfway through this one. It’s a pleasure to read. The scope and detail of Frazier’s research is impressive as he tells the tale of a man who has lived long enough to meet John C. Calhoun and complain about cars roaring by on the road in front of his house.

Everyday eBay: Culture, Collecting, and Desires. Edited by Ken Hillis, Michael Petit, and Nathan Scott Epley. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Fascinating stuff about collectors--their seeking, buying, and communities. Definitely recommended for material culture lovers and anyone who collects, well, anything.

Cheryl Neubert is very busy, but when she has time to read she is reading ...

Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005
Smith Memorial HM846 .F74 2005

Raji Pokhrel '08 read Amitav Ghosh over the summer ..

The Circle of Reason. New York: Viking, 1986
PR9499.3.G5346 C57 1986

and

Mistry Rohinton's Fine Balance. New York: Knopf, 1996
PR9199.3.M494 F56 1996

Hannah Yourd '09 is reading ...

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002
PS3555.U4 M53 2002

Raji Pokhrel '08 also thinks that this is an excellent book.

Virginia Andersen '10 is reading in her spare time and for her personal enjoyment...

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Burling Library has several editions, including a 1949 Oxford University Press Edition
PR4571 .A1 1949

Ellen Lambert '08 is enjoying reading ...

Brian Ladd's The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c1997
HT169.G32 B4127 1997

Brian Ladd graduated from Grinnell in 1979.

She comments that this book is a great read, captivating, and a page turner. She is reading it for class and wants to be reading whenever she has the chance.

And this summer Ellen read Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Sheeres. New York: Counterpoint, 2005.

Ben Good '10 read presidential biographies over the summer and recommends ...

Grant by Jean Edward Smith. New York: Simon & Schuster, c2001
E672 .S627 2001
and

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. New York: Simon & Schuster, c1995
E457 .D66 1995

Heather Parker is reading ...

Gabriel García Márquez. Cien años de soledad. Buenos Aires, Editorial Sud-americana, 1967.
PQ 8180,17 .A73 CF

Lindsey Taggart is enoying reading Civil War Novels

for English 330 with Professor Nestor.

Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty by John William de Forest
Burling has a 1955 edition
PS 1525 .D5 M57x 1955

The Bostonians by Henry James
Burling has a 1976 edition of this work
PS 2116 .B6 1976

and

Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Burling has a number of editions of this work including a Norton edition
PS 1317 .B4 1980