The Invisible Soldiers: How America Outsourced Our Security

Stretched thin by the global war on terrorism, the U.S. government has outsourced vital security and logistics to private military and security contractors (PMSCs)—gun-toting de facto mercenaries who operate largely without external oversight or accountability. Former Wall Street Journal staff writer Hagedorn (Savage Peace) documents the PMSC industry's explosive growth and murky practices. Aegis, the often renamed Blackwater, and other PMSCs guard embassies, repel pirates, interrogate detainees, operate drones, and train police. Contractors have become vital to America's ability to fight, deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq in numbers up to ten times greater than U.S. military personnel. Arguing for greater industry oversight and transparency, Hagedorn warns of the risk to democracy posed by armed contractors motivated by profit rather than patriotism. She tells of corruption scandals and of innocent Iraqis massacred with impunity. Yet, the author also acknowledges industry success stories and efforts to self-regulate. More neutrally toned, broadly appealing, and cursory than P.W. Singer's Corporate Warriors or Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater, this title is a fast-paced, critical introduction to the privatization of America's national security.