Product Description

The complete history of soldiers for hire.

From Biblical times and the Crusades through the American Revolution up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, mercenaries—professional soldiers who contract themselves out to the highest bidder—have played a vital role in most, if not all, military and paramilitary campaigns, helping to determine the victors and the vanquished. Contract Warriors reveals their compelling story for the first time.

• Why they fight (and for how much)
• How they fight
• The unique lifestyle of mercenaries both on and off the battlefield
• The spoils and business of war
• The current role of mercenaries in the world’s arms trade
• The significance of the mercenary in popular culture and film

Featuring a special afterword by W. Thomas Smith Jr. and his interview with Richard Marcinko, military consultant and author of the bestselling book Rogue Warrior

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #887180 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Fred Rosen, an investigative journalist who has written extensively on crime, is currently an adjunct professor of criminal justice at Ulster Community College and of communication at New York Institute of Technology. He is the author of Born to the Mob, Lobster Boy, and Cremation in America.

Customer Reviews

Contract Warriors
Sex sells. And so does the word: mercenary. When I saw CONTRACT WARRIORS in a Washington, DC bookstore it caught my eye. Little credible information has been written about modern security contractors (aka. merc) and private security companies (PSC) who employ them. I am one of those professionals and decided to give Fred Rosen's book a read.

The book cover got my mind turning. It is a close up of a camouflaged face with a pair of eyes fixed on yours. Does it represent the people Rosen will write about? I think not.

The author opens the first chapter with the name, Tim Spicer, who used to head a British PSC called Sandline, and now heads a far bigger one, Aegis Defense, working in Iraq. Spicer's name is familiar to many in this specialized world. Opening with a well known and controversial figure sets the author's tone. But it also limits the scope for the informed reader. The world of today's security contractor is much larger than one person or company.

Rosen's recounting of the `mercenary through time' is his strongest suit. Beginning with Libyan mercenaries during the XXI to XXV Egyptian dynasties (ca. 1100-664 B.C.E.), through Hannibal's march across the Alps, we are lead to the present day mercenary in Chapter 6. A book like this should offer new historical information and I found the 1846 America's "mantle of Manifest Destiny" period, of particular interest. Rosen describes how the Mexican government convinced some US Irish Catholic immigrants to turn on their new country and fight Americans in the name of their religion. The most noted of these was John Riley, who served in a special unit called Saint Patrick Brigade (or San Patricios).

Where the book begins to weaken is in Chapter 8. The chapter offers a jagged presentation of a few companies currently providing services. But it lacks depth which might be sought after by readers. What criterion was used to select these PSCs and not others? For example, it includes a portion of Custer Battles in-house brochures, which makes their marketing pitch for services. The author writes in response, "The brilliant analysis of the situation in Iraq explains what a modern PMC should be doing: identifying and quantifying the risk, offering a solution to a client, implementing it with a clear goal in mind." What he doesn't mention is that Custer Battles was prosecuted for over billing the U.S. government.

Reporting of other companies in this chapter would have been more useful if a business template, or similar device, was used to measure a company against some professional standard. One example would be the code of conduct being promoted through the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA). Focusing in on Iraq, the conflict has been a `comes as you are business opportunity'. The results have been a mixed bag of successes and failures for PSCs. A fresh look through new eyes would have been more practical. Examination of company structures, business plans and due diligence would benefit the reader when separating the good, bad and ugly.

The Special Afterword by W. Thomas Smith Jr. inserts out of context statements and inaccuracies. He says,"In Iraq, for instance, mercs on patrol or conducting other combat operations routinely work 13-hour days, 6 days per week." While he states the work hours correctly, he is misleading in his reference of combat operations vs. defensive security activities.

He states, "Critics continue to voice displeasure over the employment of contract warriors..." and proceeds to quote David Isenberg, a then senior analyst with the Center for Defense Information, in a 1997 monograph titled "Soldiers of Fortune, Ltd.-A Profile of Today's Private Sector Corporate Mercenary Firms." Since I know Isenberg I asked him about the quote. It appears Smith reported what he found useful but changed the context.

Isenberg sent the following in response to our conversation:

"I would note that Smith is selective in what he took from me. For example, he quoted the first part of a graf, but not the second."

Smith concludes this section with an interview conducted with Richard Marcinko, a former US Navy SEAL author of Rogue Warrior and numerous other books. I have personally heard Marchinko speak and think someone else would have been more qualified for the purpose of this interview. When asked one question by Smith, "Why would a merc hopeful contact you for mercenary training, if they are going to be trained by the company contracting them?" Marcinko replied, in part, the applicant can say, "Hey, I'm Dick Marcinko-trained." Then the company will say, "Well, if you are Rogue-Warrior-trained, you must be okay." As a statement illustrating the hype and hucksterism one often finds in the industry it is priceless, but as a serious response to a serious question it is pathetic.

CONTACT WARRIORS is worth the read but holds only limited value for the serious reader seeking to further define and understand the role of modern day security contractors.

About the reviewer: Lyle Hendrick is a former US Special Forcers officer who has worked in Iraq as a security contractor with the Captured Enemy Ammunition (CEA) program, regional security manager for reconstruction projects and is returning as a country security manager.

Disappointing. This could have been a very good book.
The author seems to use Tim Spicer's book "An Unorthodox Soldier" as a starting point, and a benchmark by which everything seems to be evaluated. While some historical accounts of the use of mercenaries are covered well enough, there are many that are given little mention, or ignored entirely (Baron von Steuben, Lafayette Escadrille, the Eagle Squadron).

He paints the term "mercenary" with a rather large brush. Some things got hype, some got spin, and that got irritating by about half way through. It felt like I was reading something one would find in one of the mainstream media. From the tone of the writing in some places I got the feeling that the author didn't dig very deep into the subject matter, and merely parroted the sentiments of previous reporters. The editing could have been better as well.

The bibliography was WOEFULLY THIN - only four books - one of which I didn't think much of either. There is an extensive listing of web sites, which leads me to believe the author's research consisted of mostly internet content (take that for what it's worth).

In its favor, there is a good listing of PMC companies and their web sites. So the book might serve as a starting point for anyone researching modern PMCs, but I would not consider it an authoritative work on the subject. Readers are much better off with books by P.W. Singer, Jim Hooper, and James R. Davis. Tim Spicer's book is a worthwhile read as well.

Could have been better
This was an interesting book. The writing (and editing) weren't really that great, but I was expecting a bit more substance.

The author gave an overview of mercenary operations over an extended period of history and then gave relatively short shrift to current operations, particulalry in Iraq, where PMC's (Private Military Companies) are making sinful amounts of money out of the ongoing debacle in Iraq.

The author doesn't appear to have an agenda with this book, other than to get published and make money the sad thing is that with a little more homework and fact checking, he could have done something special.