The setting is northern Iraq, 2004--a lawless region of rock, sand,
scrub, and warring factions; so dangerous the regular coalition armies
were reluctant to put their soldiers in harm's way up there. Enter the
civilian contractors--private armies in all but name, with state of the
art funding, equipment, and training, packing immense firepower and
staffed by veterans of the world's elite forces. Working in small groups
alongside the U.S. Army, men from all corners of the globe volunteered
to risk their lives day after day fighting someone else's war--and all
for a few bucks and a suntan. One of these mercenaries was Peter Mercer.
An ex-Royal Marine and former member of the navy's elite SBS, Peter's
been to some pretty hot places before but even he didn't know what to
expect. A warm welcome was extended when within minutes of his arrival
into northern Iraq he came under intense mortar and small-arms fire.
That was just the start of 9 months of high-tempo missions putting him
literally right on the firing line. Scouting for roadside bombs;
safeguarding the Iraqi elections; taking down hit-and-run insurgent
forces--the frenetic life of the mercenary changed from one week to the
next, but the constants remained--dirt, danger, excitement, and the
ever-present gallows humor in the face of huge casualty rates. But the
story does not end with tales of intense fire-fights and silent night
patrols. It goes much deeper. Sent on suicidal runs designed to draw out
the enemy insurgents, Peter's team were going into places even the U.S.
Army didn't care to send its troops. They were expendable men, charged
with making the hard yards on behalf of the most sophisticated army in
the world. And when the orders started coming right from the CIA itself,
things really started to heat up. Sprinkling his story with incredibly
candid anecdotes encompassing the adrenaline of battle, and reflecting
on the humor and absurdity of life on the frontline, Peter Mercer takes
us on an unforgettable journey through the dangerous backstreets of
21st-century Iraq, and reveals that the realities of the ongoing War on
Terror are not all that they seem.
