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Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated]
written by Jeremy Scahill
Studio : Nation Books
by Nation Books
Publisher : Nation Books
Released : 2008-05-26
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781568583945
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 237 reviews)
List Price : $16.95
Our Price : $5.17
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Product Description |
On September 16, 2007, machine gun fire erupted in Baghdad's Nisour Square leaving seventeen Iraqi civilians dead, among them women and children. The shooting spree, labeled "Baghdad's Bloody Sunday," was neither the work of Iraqi insurgents nor U.S. soldiers. The shooters were private forces working for the secretive mercenary company, Blackwater Worldwide. This is the explosive story of a company that rose a decade ago from Moyock, North Carolina, to become one of the most powerful players in the "War on Terror." In his gripping bestseller, awardwinning journalist Jeremy Scahill takes us from the bloodied streets of Iraq to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans to the chambers of power in Washington, to expose Blackwater as the frightening new face of the U.S. war machine. * Winner of the George Polk Book Award
* Alternet Best Book of the Year
* Barnes & Noble one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007
* Americancivilwar one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2007 |
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Twice as long as it needs to be |
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The pages are filled with more information than is needed. There are some interesting tidbits, but a lot of it is just biased or unnecesary. Its a struggle to stay interested in. Oh, and on page 97 the word 'Constructed' is spelled wrong. It is definately thoroughly researched, but aparently it includes evey word of that research, no revision to remove any excess fluff. |
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Left-wing Hit Job |
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This is not an objective look at Blackwater but a left-wing hit job on the private security company, Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush and the Iraq war. If your views line up with Dennis Kucinich then this might be for you. |
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unreadable |
I quit this book about 100 pages in. I found it to be unreadable. My problem with the book was not its politics. I read The Nation and am a liberal Democrat.
My problem was the editing, or lack thereof. The author writes in a confusing nonlinear way, with too many digressions and too much irrelevant detail. Very hard to track his narrative and to figure out where he is going. He uses long quotes from other people, rather than digesting their facts and giving attribution by endnote or footnote; he thus includes many unnecessary words.
I see that the paperback version is described as revised. I do not know if it was revised to correct the style problems in the original. I hope so. If not, don't waste your time. The subject of this book is important, but I'll wait until someone who can tell a straight story, like Bob Woodward, or Jane Meyer, tackles this topic. |
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War by Error |
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It is hard to add usefully to the encomiums alrady heaped on this book, which details how a profit-seeking company, Blackwater, with the enthusiastic backing of the White House and Department of Defense and State Department,turned relatively innocuous administratve duties into a bloody crusade by untouchable privateers. Sad but true. |
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A Thoughtful, Well Researched Account |
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Jeremy Scahill presents a thoughtful, well-researched, if not alarming and downright frightening account of the rise of Blackwater's Army and the extent of their access to the "powers that be" in Washington. |
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