Introduction
During times of war, security has always been a number one concern of the government, military, and the citizens of the United States of America. What does the nation do when there are not enough people enlisting in the military? This was a reality entering the War on Terror. Protection was needed for officials working in war torn countries, such as ambassadors, and there potentially was not the influx in military personnel that was necessary to adequately defend the country and protect these individuals. That is where private mercenaries were brought in. Soon after, the question would arise, are private security companies creating a lucrative business out of war and tragedy? One of the most prominent of these private security companies was called Blackwater. Blackwater was owned by Erik Prince, a wealthy, right wing Republican who endorsed many politicians with a Christian backing. The book Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, looks at private security companies being put into play by the government to create a private military and discusses some of the many issues that this can cause. (Scahill, 2007)
Summary of Argument
The author of Blackwater, Jeremy Scahill, (2007), presents facts throughout the book while also including his thoughts on having private contract security companies be so prominent. One of the main themes of this book is that Blackwater essentially used war and bad situations to cash in on billions of dollars. Another main issue that Scahill (2007), argues is the fact that to some extent, private mercenaries were exempt from the laws that American military members had to abide by and it would be hard to convict them of any crimes they commit during their service. Scahill (2007), makes many arguments as to why private security companies being used by the government is an issue, but the main takeaway is that privatizing the military can be potentially dangerous to civilians in any nation as well as our democracy here in America.
About the Author
The author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army is Jeremy Scahill. Scahill, who is 43 years old, is known best as an investigative reporter. He has reported from various warzones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. On top of being a journalist he is one of the founders of The Intercept. The Intercept is a news organization, founded in 2013 that uses adversarial journalism. Blackwater is a book consisting of research and reporting that Scahill has done. He won the George Polk book award for Blackwater, which is an impressive award for successes in journalism. Jeremy Scahill has also written a few other books, one of which being made into a movie that he wrote, produced, and narrated. Scahill has had a successful journalism career thus far and writing Blackwater has certainly contributed to this success. (About & Contacts, 2017).
Summary of Contents
Blackwater begins with an introduction titled, Baghdad’s Bloody Sunday. This chapter details the situation that happened in Nisour Square, Iraq where Blackwater mercenaries killed numerous civilians, which author Jeremy Scahill (2007), notes that it is up in the air whether the mercenary convoy was under threat or if they began firing on civilians indiscriminately. The book then goes on to explain that Blackwater is a private security company whose main goal is to protect diplomats and US officials who travel into warzones for various reasons. After Nisour Square occurred it was found that these mercenaries were given immunity and were not held to the same standards as other military members who have killed civilians when unprovoked. When Nisour Square happened the FBI went to investigate and while they were in the country they were protected by none other than Blackwater mercenaries. To the author Scahill (2007), this appears to be a potential conflict of interest. (Scahill, 2007)
The book gives some information on the creator or Blackwater and the beginnings of the corporation. It is stated that the idea of civilian contractors came about when Vice President Dick Cheney was in the White House. (Scahill, 2007). Erik Prince was the man who created Blackwater. He was born into an extremely wealthy, religious family. Prior to founding Blackwater, he was a SEAL. The author (Scahill 2007). gives information about how Prince himself is very religious and supports right wing politicians and ideals. On various occasions he donated quite a substantial amount of money, but none to democratic organizations. The original idea for Blackwater was a military training facility. It was constructed in North Carolina near the Great Dismal Swamp. Blackwater actually got its name from the water in the swamp that was very dark colored. After the mass shooting at Columbine High School occurred, the company created a facility that was meant to train law enforcement in the event of a school tragedy happening again. According to Scahill (2007), this was one of the first ways that Blackwater used a tragedy to make money. In 2002 Prince and the rest of Blackwater formed Blackwater Security Consulting, which is their private security company. (Scahill 2007)
The rest of the book largely details specific events that have occurred that show the corruption of the government as well as within Blackwater. (Scahill, 2007). One event that was catastrophic for Blackwater was working for a company in Fallujah, Iraq and four mercenaries were sent on a mission to pick up items for the company they were contracted for. At this time, things were tense in the city and the Marines warned them to not drive directly through the city. Allegedly according to the author (Scahill, 2007), they were supposed to have at least six men on this mission and only had four. They ignored the Marines warning and drove directly through the city, resulting in an ambush. The four men were murdered cruelly and their bodies were hung from a bridge. After this event, the families of the men killed sued Blackwater in wrongful death suits. There was another situation where a Blackwater helicopter crashed and families sued as well stating that Blackwater was not thorough in the plan and as a result their family members died. The rest of the book goes into detail about Blackwater’s next moves. They were deployed to New Orleans after Katrina hit. There was talk of using Blackwater in places where peacekeeping was needed such as Darfur. Blackwater also developed its own intelligence company. The author (Scahill, 2007), says that all of these events and moves were part of Blackwater’s executives plans to gain power and money. (Scahill 2007)
Strengths and Weaknesses
Blackwater has many strengths as well as weaknesses. The greatest strength of this book is the detail that was put into it. It is a fairly long book and there is a lot of information included. The author does a great job of fitting all of the information in a way that makes sense to read. In other words, even though it was long, it was not a difficult book to read and keep up with. The book supplies ample material to understand the author’s view of the topic. The main weakness of this book is the fact that it is incredibly biased. I cannot say that I do not agree with the author, however, I think that there could be more information given that details the Blackwater side of things. There are some quotes from the owner, Erik Prince, included, but I think that there could be more to really give the other perspective to the reader.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think that this book was very interesting to read. It gives an interesting perspective into the consequences that could arise with the use of private mercenaries and a private military. I believe that this book would be great for anyone who is interested in military or learning more about the hiring of private mercenaries. Reading this book gave me an opportunity to learn about a topic that I previously did not know much about.