blackwater

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
$15.99
...scary that supposedly "educated" and "intelligent" non-Christians show themselves to be as eager for simplistic, paranoid, "See? It all fits together!" explanations for the world around them as the least educated fundamentalist (Christian OR Muslim).

I don't really, as they say, "have a dog in this fight", but I like to think I have a commitment to the truth that overrides my preconceptions and personal preferences. Sharlet must be going by the postmodern definition of truth-that it is subjective and malleable. This excuses a multitude of (pardon the usage) sins in the presentation of a biased,sloppy, mean-spirited narrative.

And here I must admit I didn't make it very far into this book before giving it up as an overwritten and boring hatchet piece on people who, I suspect, I would consider morally superior to the author.

No great loss, I didn't buy the book and didn't waste much time reading it. What I do find discouraging to the point of depression, is how gullible the anti-fundamentalist (or is it "anti-Christian" nowdays?) are, how eager to accept the slant and the bias, the glaring misrepresentations and the hateful, unfounded innuendo, how mindlessly they gobble up wild conspiracy theories, so long as these presentations confirm their own preconceptions. (as shown by the reviews and comments)

If Sharlet were to come out and announce the whole thing was an experiment to see how easily an innocuous, well-meaning group could be tarred with the "secretive conspiratorial cult" brush, I'd be impressed. Because that is what he has demonstrated. Instead, I'm sure this book is either a cynical money-maker or represents the sincere beliefs of a hate-filled propagandist with no respect for the truth. I'm not sure with is more sad.

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, Updated Edition (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
$19.95
Amazing book that reviews the realities of "mercs" and the very recent boom in their corporate organization.

Blackwater
$18.00
Warning: spoilers, sort of.
I really don't understand the praise this excruciatingly boring novel has received. It's not a good murder-mystery, it lacks coherence, it seems to want to be dark and foreboding like a Scandinavian winter but ends up being pretentious, full of leads that go nowhere and it is at least 200 pages too long. The author, perhaps trying to sprinkle literary touches, starts most of the chapters with pronouns, so one has to read one or two paragraphs before the character the chapter is about is revealed. The men in this novel are either brutes or delicate spring flowers that break down and just can't go on with their inner torments. The women are either savagely attached to their offspring or they are not. Everybody is utterly uninteresting, like potatoes in a field: one potato, two potatoes, fifty potatoes. Ekman wanders about the landscape into long episodes that lead nowhere and add nothing to the plot: a 16 year-old suspect's involvement with an older woman turns out to be tens of pages of nothing, just as Annie Raft's life in the Starhill commune turn out to be just padding. My Vintage U.K. edition of the book gave the game away by putting on a great cover of a dark lake with a boat floating on it (the boat is key), but this novel never was about the murder of the two people inside the tent: the victims were just props for the weirdness around them. The third murder is transparent and you can spot the killer as soon as the victim is found in the water. In the end, the book isn't about the perpetrators or those who live with them, either. It's just a pedantic stab at the genre by a writer in love with her own pretentious prose. Ekman has written several novels. This is the first and last by her for me: life's too short to waste it reading fake "literary" thrillers that betray the single most important rule of this genre's writing: keep it interesting.

Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army [Revised and Updated]
$16.95
The only reason one can call this a book is for the format of it. This is a patchwork of quotes from newspapers, interviews and TV talks. I did not expect a book written by a young a journalist to be of much valor, but I expected to be nonbiased. It is not. From the first half page of the book I determined that the author treats the war on terror and Blackwater in a negative way. The copied and pasted quotes are not commented or interpreted. At some point the author tries to make some historical connections between past Iraqi events and actual dealings. Very poor attempt. This to me was a book written by a tree-huger, latte drinker, bottle recycler newyorker.

It took me a while to get used with the style of writing. The first almost one hundred pages were a hassle. One can continually read about the war in Iraq and happenings that seem isolated from the whole war. Blackwater is portrayed as the bad guy all along. Anything that the author could muster and was able to turn into a negative view was written to highlight the evil. As far as I could determine, Blackwater is a business that does whatever other businesses do to turn a profit. If Erik Prince gives money to the Republican Party, good for him. Giving money to parties is a free choice and the amounts constitute public record. If the Republican Party favors him, very nice for them: friends should help each other. Everyone has a reason to support a party and s/he does so in order to benefit of tax reductions or better life. However, if there is corruption and Blackwater gets contracts preferentially, than the parties should be brought under the law and justice should be served.

What bothered me a lot was the fact that US military and Blackwater are portrayed as criminals against Iraqi while 9/11 is only mentioned as a point of reference in time. At one point, during the battle of Fallujah in April 2004, the author quotes a doctor that says "there is no law on earth that can justify what the Americans have done to innocent people", while seeing the amounts of Iraqi dead at the US military attacks. Let me remind the Iraqi Sunni that during Saddam's regime, Shiite population was killed, including women and children. The same happened during the Iraq - Iran war, when Iraqis were killing Iranians, including women and children. The same happened during 9/11, when thousands of innocent people were killed, thousands of families were destroyed, and God knows how many kids are growing up having parents killed in the tragedy. I guess, when someone else is terrorized, it's not a problem. The tragedy hits when we are the ones under the bullets. In a poll I read a few years back, only 5% of Iraqis condemned the attacks on 9/11.

To anyone that read and understood history, the human species is inclined not to peace, but war. The fact that we are living peaceful times in the US is a blessing and a miracle. But the norm is war. It has been through History and will continue that way. Arab population will always hate everyone who is not Muslim. That will never change. Christians had their going when killing Muslims, other Christians, Native Americans or Maya's. Having written a book on how armies are bad and mercs are worst is the most unrealistic project.

There are chapters in the book that don't have much to do with Blackwater. The Blackwater name is thrown around just so one might decide this company is connected with everybody and everything. Things as Blackwater mercs are first in saving Katrina's affected people are presented as bad news. Well, if I am in trouble, I don't really care who saves me: could be the National Guard, could be Blackwater, or could be my neighbor! Thank you for getting there in time for me to be saved from the calamity!

All in all, this book is a jock. It is unrealistic, unpatriotic and disrespectful to the people that died and their families, so we can have a very comfortable life, debating about peace and a green world.

I am still to find a book on Blackwater so I can understand who, what, when, why and how much about this company. Everyone has its time and now this is the Blackwater time.