Sunday, January 8, 2012

Book Post #1

The book, "Licensed to Kill, is a riveting book about the untold world of private military contractors in the Middle East. While reading this book you get an up close and personal view of the secretive world that goes on in the streets of Iraq and in other places of interest all around the world. The first part of the book starts off with the narrator telling the story of a former Army Special Forces soldier by the name of Billy Waugh. Billy is a true hardcore fighting American. In the last year of World War II he tried to sign up to fight was was rejected and sent home because he was only fifteen. In 1947 when Billy was seventeen he became an Army Paratrooper. Seven years after that he joined the two year old Army Special Forces and worked off and on with the CIA. Through out his United States military career he was awarded the Purple Heart award for being shot 8 times which included having his knee cap shattered by a bullet. Even at his age of 82, he says that he would gladly go wherever his country needs him to kill or help and support the soldiers fighting. One of the most interesting things that Billy talked about was his involvement in Sudan when he was keeping an eye on an exiled wealthy Saudi by the name of Osama Bin Laden. Billy tells the reader how, "he thinks of how things could have been different if he would have been allowed to kill Bin Laden in the Sudan years." For me that would be hard to live with knowing how much you could have changed the course of history and theoretically save the lives of thousands. "We could have killed Bin Laden innumerable times. Every day I put in fifteen contingency plans for killing him. Our idea was to kill him and dump him over the Iranian embassy wall." Unfortunately he was never given the authorization to kill bin Laden.

This book in a way hits home for me. I have a family friend who is a former Marine and has just been hired as  a private military contractor Triple Canopy. Triple Canopy is one of the largest and most well known private military contractors. There are a few reasons why soldiers would want to go into being a private military contractor. As a private military contractor you don't have to follow and take orders from a commanding officer. You also can grow your hair out and have facial hair. Another reason is that you are allowed to bring and use your own weapons and firearms. But the main reason money. A private military contractor can make his previous monthly salary as a soldier in one day. Being a private military contractor allows them to do what they love by fighting for their country and killing the enemy for a much much larger salary.

The Triple Canopy Website:
http://www.triplecanopy.com/

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