<![CDATA[Highway to Hell: Dispatches from a Mercenary in Iraq]]>

false <![CDATA[Highway to Hell: Dispatches from a Mercenary in Iraq]]>

3644236

“They come from across the globe: former special forces soldiers from Britain, the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and every country on the European mainland. There are Gurkhas from the Himalayan foothills and Fijians from the South Sea Islands. There are men who learned their skills with the Japanese antiterrorist paramilitaries and many from southern Africa. There was even one guy who’d served in the Chinese People’s Army and Chilean commandos and Sri Lankan antiterrorist experts who joined the mercenary gold rush to Iraq. They don’t share a common ideology or common loyalty, but what they do share is a thirst for adventure and a hunger for big bucks; Iraq is the one place they are certain to find both…”For the first time a private military contractor delivers a frontline report on life as a hired gun in Iraq. “Anyone entering Iraq must travel the road from Amman to Baghdad along the Fallujah bypass and around the Ramadi Ring Road. It’s the most dangerous trunk route in the world, used as a personal fairground shooting gallery by insurgents and Islamists with rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikovs. For newcomers to the country it’s terrifying – but hell only really begins when that first journey ends…” Amidst the ongoing controversy over the widespread employment of private military contractors in Iraq, Highway to Hell is a mercenary’s graphic, first-person exposé of life in “the second biggest army in Iraq.” Not since the days when the East India Company used soldiers of fortune to depose fabulously wealthy maharajas and conquer India for Great Britain, and mercenaries fought George Washington’s Continental Army for King George, has such a large and lethal independent fighting force been assembled. Hired to do everything from securing American bases and supply routes to guarding the thousands of government officials, executives, aid workers, journalists, and other civilians now populating the Middle East’s most notorious target range, today’s clandestine soldiers of fortune earn up to $1,000 a day, while remaining almost entirely immune from government oversight, military authority, or Iraqi law John Geddes, a former warrant officer in Britain’s elite SAS and veteran of several wars, became a private military contractor in Iraq immediately following President George W. Bush's declaration of the end of hostilities in early May 2003. In Highway to Hell Geddes gives an unsparing account of his harrowing, often bloody, and occasionally absurd adventures in the wild west of Iraq. After a chaotic chase on the Ramadi Ring Road, he takes out insurgents with a sniper rifle (while nursing the mother of all hangovers). He provides security to a cameraman during to a shootout on the rooftop of a Baghdad hotel alongside Kalashnikov-wielding Iraqi waiters (and accepts a marriage proposal that is almost drowned out by RPG fire). He witnesses American contractors shooting and pushing other vehicles off the road first and asking questions later (or, rather, not at all). From rushing a TV crew into the mayhem of a suicide bombing’s aftermath to accompanying an oil executive to a meeting in the heart of darkness of Sadr City, Geddes presents a stunning, chilling inside look at the face of contemporary warfare.

3687125

2008

Highway to Hell: Dispatches from a Mercenary in Iraq

total:13|5:3|4:3|3:6|2:1|1:0|

5 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 18 06:13:42 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 18 06:14:03 -0700 2009 There's no way of knowing exactly how many PMCs have been killed in contacts with insurgents, because it's not in the interests of the companies who hire them to advertise a body-bag count, and back home dead men don't attract any political attention if they weren't killed in the uniform of their co...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Dec 05 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 04:21:08 -0800 2008 Sat Dec 06 04:28:31 -0800 2008 An exciting but scary and depressing read about life as a Private Military Contractor (PMC) - som...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 07:47:46 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 05:41:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 09:37:55 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 24 10:17:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 16:07:38 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 12 22:20:20 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Fri Oct 02 16:49:59 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 16:49:59 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Mon Jul 27 15:04:14 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 09:59:40 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 15:04:14 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 16 11:37:55 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 11:37:55 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jun 26 12:10:25 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 26 12:39:49 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu May 07 15:48:16 -0700 2009 Fri May 08 10:50:15 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat May 02 19:34:04 -0700 2009 Sun May 03 20:28:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 30 16:48:38 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 30 16:48:38 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Feb 10 07:48:33 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 07:48:33 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Feb 02 21:25:52 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 21:25:52 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Thu Jan 29 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 15:50:41 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 29 15:51:29 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Dec 04 19:59:55 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 13 05:50:45 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Nov 19 06:46:37 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 19 06:46:37 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Tue Nov 10 15:00:25 -0800 2009 Mon Oct 27 16:26:51 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 22 20:42:35 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Sep 03 16:10:41 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 02 08:08:16 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 11 10:15:57 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 11 10:15:57 -0700 2008