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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Someone else said it in the comments, but after reading all the right/left bickering going on in the reviews, it bears repeating.

People, this is not a right/left issue. This is about basic freedom and liberty. History has shown that time and time again an army with no accountability or civilian control is a dangerous beast indeed ... and that is just what we in the United States are creating with Blackwater.

While I did grow weary of the author's rather slanted sentence structure, this is simply one of the scariest books I've read in years.

Please. Read the book and draw your own conclusions.

"Blackwater: The rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army" is nice book. It's really biased, but it calls up for a problem that doesn't appears in the media: the private military contractors. Few people knows about Blackwater and other firms, its ideologies, beliefs, associations, etc. It's a company, so its primary objective is profit, with its business, but its business is war. Sounds creep, but this is the true, and it's not only in Iraq. Many humanitarian organization rely on these companies for security in risk areas and failed states.

Scahill begans his investigation narrating the incident in Nisour Square, with morbid details, and how the perpetrators were not punished. The first chapter is to make clear that this book won't be nice with Blackwater. After talking about Rumsfeld plan's to increase outsource in the military industry, he describe the life of Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince, its family, home and influences and how he started Blackwater. AS a critic of the war in Iraq, he writes about the situation of the country and the job of the PMCs. He dedicates two chapters for Scott Helvenston and describe the ambush, which resulted in his death and his teammates. Then he descibres the battles of Najaf (which Blackwater employees were giving orders to US soldiers, acting like commanders) and Fallujah. The next chapters, is about lobbying, operations in Azerbaijan, lawsuits, the "air force" of Blackwater. Then the targets are the executives: Black e Schmitz, with the death squad between their chapters. Then he talks about the operation in Katrina and other charities. And ends with a discussion about the power of the industry and the future.

When I finished the book I was astonished of how can this happen. This industry doesn't need to be a devil, but Bremer's rules are transforming they in a demon. Without regulation, since they will not simply become extinct, there will be no limits of what their soldiers can do. They don't need to answer to anyone. It's very dangerous stimulate the corruption in the human being, and it is necessary put some limits imediatily in their job.

And I didn't understand very well the connection that Scahill makes with Blackwater and the Christian right. But, I must confess that I don't understand how a man self declared Christian can make war and death his business and give glory to the Lord. I am Christian and some kind of conservative, but I don't believe in the American Christian right. See for example, this quotation: "Many Christians in Southern Sudan desire to break free form international handouts and learn free-market principles, useful skills and technologies that will move them form depence to independence". I couldn't belive that this was written. I was looking for the original article, but I didn't find a free version in the net. If it's true then I understand what Stiglitz meant with "free-market fundamentalism". Free-market is not the Gospel. It's disgusting how our brothers in Darfur are dying and nobody is doing anything, because it's just about oil, the cursed oil. China let the Sudanese government kill Christian just for the oil. If the US strike, they will only go after the oil. But it's equally disgusting how Scahill and other members of the left show no compassion with the people that are dying there. Someday everybody involved in this tragedy will receive their judgements.

Scahill also writes about the use of PMCs to protect humanitarian NGOs but, here he just relate the situation, perhaps because he understood the gravity of the situation, and let the reader decide.

Last advice: read with open mind, whether you are a conservative or liberal.

So what is reporter Jeremy Schahill's problem with the mercenary company Blackwater? Well, it's run by Christian conservatives who are rigorous supporters of the Bush presidency, and it enables the American government to pursue an imperialist agenda, without the support of either the American people or military. And sometimes Blackwater mercenaries kill innocent civilians, and with their lax safety standards Blackwater permits their own soldiers to be killed.

Jeremy Schahill reports for the Nation magazine and Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" so he's used to preaching to the choir. Mercenaries? Christian right? George Bush? Imperialism? Well, that's an open and shut case: Blackwater is evil, and must be stopped now.

Now Blackwater is a very interesting topic and a lot of readers who are not knee-jerk liberals -- such as myself -- will want to read up on it, and so Jeremy Schahill needs to articulate his case against Blackwater better -- and unfortunately he doesn't even try.

Blackwater, after all, is merely a company that is meeting market demand. George W. Bush decided to invade and occupy Iraq, and he needed a reliable mercenary company to protect American diplomats -- and Blackwater has maintained a perfect record in the protection of "high value targets." Violence is a brutal, subjective business, and now and then Blackwater mercenaries will over-use force in order to protect American officials and diplomats -- resulting in the wanton killing of civilians. But, again, they're just doing their job, and they're doing it very well.

Another of Jeremy Schahill's concern is the Bush cabal's -- as best represented by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney -- push to privatize the military. Donald Rumsfeld has consistently argued that privatizing the military would make it more efficient and cost-effective, and permit America to fight the asymmetrical wars of the 21st century. Again here Jeremy Schahill takes it on faith that this is a very bad idea -- but Mr. Rumsfeld could well be right -- there just isn't enough history and evidence to ascertain who is right and wrong.

Now and then Mr. Schahill tries to explain why Blackwater is bad for the American republic. Remember Rome, and its use of mercenaries? Well, eventually these mercenary armies turned against Rome -- but this a point that Mr. Schahill doesn't really articulate.

But besides the trite and over-used example of Rome Mr. Schahill could have also used the example of Britain and the East India Company. In the beginning of the 19th century East India Company officials or "nabobs" were getting filthy rich in India, returning to Great Britain, spending their wealth lavishly to cultivate political connections, and became a strong lobby for Britain's imperialistic drive which ultimately corrupted its republican virtues. America's nascent mercenary lobby is extremely close to the Bush presidency, and there's very good reason to believe that Erik Prince, Blackwater's king, will enter the political arena one day.

If Mr. Schahill were to delve deeper and conduct true investigative journalism he may well discover that his case against Blackwater is a lot stronger than mere speculating and complaining. Mr. Schahill tells us that Blackwater mercenaries are responsible for protecting the top American officials in Iraq and have immunity from prosecution -- and so what's going to happen when you give professional killers a lot of power and nothing to restrain them?

When I was in Afghanistan working for the United Nations I would hear now and then of international soldiers involved in the drug trade and in smuggling cultural relics out of the country. It made perfect sense for these soldiers to engage in these activities because they had the means -- the planes, the weapons, and the time -- and there was little risk of them actually getting caught. By now we know that Blackwater mercenaries stand accused of selling guns and weapons to insurgent groups in Iraq -- and why not? We are talking about extreme risk-takers put in a situation where they can make a lot of money with little risk, and so why wouldn't Blackwater mercenaries sell guns to their enemies? And why wouldn't they sell drugs and smuggle relics?

"Blackwater" runs to almost 500 pages, and if the author spent as much time actually investigating what Blackwater is doing in Iraq as he did in writing the book he would have done his country a great service.

Liberals love to push and fight over who was first to be against the war in Iraq. This distracts from the far more interesting questions that books like this seek to expose. The triumph of private mercenaries who discredit this great country and are allowed to operate unchecked by the noble traditions of military justice is unpatriotic and criminal. How this terrible "business" arose is well worth investigation and exposure. It is irrelevant whether one supports the war or not. Both sides should agree that turning over our national dignity to Mcmilitary operations is a scandal. Democrats and Republican should decry our loss of civilian and military control. That Democrats against the war are silent on this outrage shows their hypocrisy. This is pure profiteering at its worst, but more outrageous is the shame and national dishonor brought to our nation in the eyes of the world who see these incompetent criminals murdering people in cold blood in the name of the USA.

I loved this book for what it had to say about Blackwater, and it's extremely right-wing leanings.

I post on a "Conspiracy Theory" Forum, and received "Blackwater Expert" rank because of the information I read and conveyed based on this book, as well as my insight into all things military, and the countless other topics I investigate for my own personal interest.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread352934/pg1

I hope everyone who reads this book finds it intriguing and informative, to say the least. It's not that it's right-wing, so much as the current Administration has abused power so much, that it has left a bad taste in anyone who loves Democracy, can see the writing on the wall towards shredding the United States Consitution that is supposed to protect us as citizens from our Government becoming too powerful, and becoming a tyranny.

tHE BOOK IS THOUGHT PROVOKING AND FRIGHTENING,IT NEEDS TO BE READ BY AMERICANS AND FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE WORLD!

First and foremost, you should know that this book has a 60 page bibliography. "Blackwater" has to be one of the most well researched books I've read. While theres alot of information being thrown at you, the author does an incredible job making it easy to follow. In terms of vernacular used, the book is perfect for any High Schooler and is generally easy to read.

The author provides alot of background to the history of Blackwater and the places it has influence. This is not only a welcomed necessity, but a horrifying drama. "Blackwater" has taught me more than I imagined regarding the Iraqi war, and even the Iraqi resistance.

If you've ever watched the news and wondered what you weren't being told, then you should read this book. If you prefer to live in blindness and refuse to recognize the crimes of the bush administration, then I advise you to pass this book by.

Unfortunately the information in this volume is but a small fraction of what has been going on in America for too many years. Naturally none of which is ever brought to the light of day by our corporate owned Media.
If the American populace were aware of the wool that has so long been pulled over their eyes this would not be. As it stands dismantling the Power Structure that has taken over our Democracy (dismantling it in the process) has become an almost insurmountable task. I am afraid that in the end it will only come to be by force with the consequence of blood running in our country's streets.