Product Description

"Anyone entering Iraq must travel the road from Amman to Baghdad along the Fallujah by-pass 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..." Present-day Iraq: a crucible of torture, chemical warfare and Islamic terrorism, and straddling over it all the mighty US Army and its allies; but there's another western army in Iraq that dwarfs the British contingent and is second only in size to the US Army itself. It's a disparate and anarchic multi-national force of men gathered from twenty or more countries numbering some 30,000. It's a mercenary army of men and a few women with guns for hire earning an average of $1,000 dollars a day. They are in Iraq to provide security for the businessmen, surveyors, building contractors, oil experts, aid workers and, of course, the TV crews who have flocked to the country to pick over the carcass of Saddam's regime and help the country re-build. 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. Once upon a time such men were called freelances, mercenaries, soldiers of fortune or dogs of war, but today they go under a different name: private military contractors. There's a far more fundamental sea change, too, as women have joined their ranks in significant numbers for the first time, bringing a new and interesting dynamic into the equation. In Iraq today, the majority of their number are men who come from 'real deal' Special Forces units or former soldiers from regular units and regiments; all of them know what they're about and rub shoulders together more or less comfortably with at least a shared understanding of basic military requirements. One such man is John Geddes, ex-SAS warrant officer and veteran of a fistful of hard wars who became a member of the private army in Iraq for the eighteen months immediately following George W. Bush's declaration of the end of hostilities in early May 2003. Now, for the first time, John Geddes will reveal the inside story of this extraordinary private army and the private war they are still fighting with the insurgents in Iraq.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175355 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 304 pages

From the Publisher
An SAS soldier’s account of the biggest mercenary army to be assembled since the American War of Independence -- the 30,000 ‘private military contractors’ hired to fight in Iraq.

From the Inside Flap
"Anyone entering Iraq must travel the road from Amman to Baghdad along the Fallujah by-pass 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…"

Present-day Iraq: a crucible of torture, chemical warfare and Islamic terrorism, and straddling over it all the mighty US Army and its allies; but there’s another western army in Iraq that dwarfs the British contingent and is second only in size to the US Army itself.

It’s a disparate and anarchic multi-national force of men gathered from twenty or more countries numbering some 30,000. It’s a mercenary army of men and a few women with guns for hire earning an average of $1,000 dollars a day. They are in Iraq to provide security for the businessmen, surveyors, building contractors, oil experts, aid workers and, of course, the TV crews who have flocked to the country to pick over the carcass of Saddam’s regime and help the country re-build.

The majority of their number are men who come from ‘real deal’ Special Forces units or former soldiers from regular units and regiments; all of them know what they’re about and rub shoulders together more or less comfortably with at least a shared understanding of basic military requirements.
One such man is John Geddes, ex-SAS warrant officer and veteran of a fistful of hard wars who became a member of the private army in Iraq for the eighteen months immediately following George W. Bush’s declaration of the end of hostilities in early May 2003. Now, for the first time, John Geddes will reveal the inside story of this extraordinary private army and the private war they are still fighting with the insurgents in Iraq.

From the Back Cover
Taking out insurgents on the Ramadi ring road with a sniper rifle and the mother of all hangovers...shootouts on the rooftop of a Baghdad hotel alongside Kalashnikov-wielding Iraqi waiters...American tanks mistaking Irish cameraman for bazooka-armed militants...Accepting a marriage proposal in the middle of a gunfight.

Just another day in the life of a mercenary in the crazy, Wild West world of Iraq.

Present-day Iraq is a crucible of torture, chemical warfare and Islamic terrorism, swamped with insurgents pitched against the mighty US Army and its allies... but there’s another western army in Iraq that dwarfs the British contingent and is second only in size to the US Army itself.

It’s a disparate and anarchic multi-national force of men gathered from twenty or more countries numbering some 30,000. It’s a mercenary army of men and a few women with guns for hire earning an average of $1,000 dollars a day. They are in Iraq to provide security for the businessmen, surveyors, building contractors, oil experts, aid workers and, of course, the TV crews who have flocked to the country to pick over the carcass of Saddam’s regime and help the country re-build.

John Geddes, ex-SAS warrant officer and veteran of a fistful of hard wars, became a member of the mercenary army in Iraq for the eighteen months immediately following George W. Bush’s declaration of the end of hostilities on April 16, 2003. Now, in this breathtaking book, the most original and pulsating story of modern war since Bravo Two Zero, John Geddes will reveal the inside story of this extraordinary private army and the private war they are still fighting with the insurgents in Iraq.

Customer Reviews

Riveting real-life Chris Ryan action!
Forget Chris Ryan and Andy McNab, John Geddes is the real deal. Kicking his feet after retiring from the SAS, Geddes turns to the life of a mercenary to keep him on his toes, and winds up in Iraq, a lone soldier of fortune, protecting journalists from rocket attacks and insurgency assaults -- as well as idiotic US marines -- around Baghdad. The action comes thick and fast, as Geddes takes us into a world far removed from all the media reports, documentaries and military dramas. This is a world of hard fighting, Wild West-style shootouts in the streets, elite women soldiers dressed in full-length Muslim clothing, and much more besides. Geddes comes across as a guy who takes no prisoners, and he sees both rights and wrongs in the war in Iraq... most of all, he comes across as a staunch defender of the future role of the mercenary in global security. A definite must-read for any action nut!!

This is a must read - totally gripping from start to finish !!
Ok I'll be honest and say that I have never read a book from start to finish in my life, well not a novel type book anyway. I first read an extract of this book after it was shown in one of the national news papers and from then on I had to finish what I had started so took a chance and bought the book. Money well spent!

John Geddes, a former warrent officer in the SAS gives a very graphic and honest insight to some of the personal encounters he has had with insurgents whilst working as a Private Military Contractor within Iraq from protecting the various T.V crews to other high profile figures.

There's action throughout from shootouts in hotels with insurgents, to shootouts driving down the Fallujah bypass, bombs going of by the road. And all this in the name of protection. He also tells of his own personal attempt to track down and caputre the "Beheader of Baghdad" Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi who was killed recently by the Americans.

From the very first chapter I promise you that (from someone who is not a book lover) you will be gripped by his story and his style and his attitude of his writting. This is one guy you would love to sit a bar with over a pint. One seriously hard dude! Eagerly awaiting book number two ?!

Perfection in motion
I have read alot of books on special forces from Andy McNabb to Duncan Falconer, Geddes impressed me the most due to the fact that he didn't even talk about his time in the SAS like most operators do, but about his work as a private military contractor, he did tend to go off the subject a bit some times but I guess he was trying to give his story some historical context. I also enjoyed how he had other fellow PMCs tell their stories such as the 'Baghdad babes' to 'tak'. Furthermore I was rolling around laughing my lungs out at some of his expressions.
Lastly he makes a very strong and interesting point for PMCS taking up the roll for the United Nations of stopping genocides in places such as Rwanda due to the inemptidude of UN troops who to be blunt are bloody useless. So bravo to John Geddes!!! My hat goes off to you. A well deserved 5 stars.