BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

Forget the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq. That was just a trumped up propaganda phrase from the Bushevik Department of Defense to help sell the Iraq War.

As "Licensed to Kill" amply, anecdotally and ably illustrates, what we have here is the "coalition of the billing" -- or privatized mercenaries accountable to no government.

As Pelton points out, these guys and the firms who make exorbitant profits from them don't like to be called mercenaries. They are "security firms," they argue.

Yeah, and George Bush is a member of Mensa.

Pelton takes us beyond the myth of the Bushevik privatization of large swaths of our military, by introducing us to real people. This is not a book that was done in the library. Like the "guns for hire" themselves, Pelton went out into the field.

Remember that these "licensed to kill" companies were even involved in the torture, now legal, that the Bush Administration implemented.

As contracted agents, they are not even accountable to the diminished military standards of decency -- nor are they subject to justice if they end up doing a little death squad work on the side.

Who would know after all -- or tell?

The firms that have a "license to kill" are all part of the Cheney/Bush war profiteering machine -- and are tied at the hip with the GOP. You might say it's cash and kill.

This is a fascinating and engrossing book of corporatized war fought with a contract gained through political access in one hand and an AK-47 -- or a plastic bag and a water board -- in the other.

A must read to fully understand the moral gutter into which we have sunk as a nation.

Pelton, however, doesn't present a heavy-handed biased account. He just lets the story tell itself, particularly through the contracted warriors of the night.

“‘The dark side of the war on terror’ may sound redundant, but how else can you describe the world of contractors, mercs, and wackos who are paid big money to keep the key players alive and the war machinery humming? It’s a cynical, funny, and very scary place, stretching from Arkansas to Fallujah, and no one gets it, or tells it, better than Robert Young Pelton.” —John Rasmus, editor in chief, National Geographic Adventure

From the publisher: "The United States has encouraged the use of the private sector in all facets of the War on Terror, placing contractors outside the bounds of functional legal constraints. With the shocking clarity that can come only from firsthand observation, Licensed to Kill painstakingly deconstructs the most controversial events and introduces the pivotal players. Most disturbingly, it shows that there are indeed thousands of contractors—with hundreds more being produced every month—who’ve been given a license to kill, their services available to the highest bidder."


BUZZFLASH REVIEWS