War Dog - Fighting Other People's Wars

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War Dog - Fighting Other People's Wars -The Modern Mercenary in Combat
Author: Al J. Venter
Hardback - 664 pages
Publisher: Casemate
Price: £14.99
ISBN: 978-1-932033-90-8

The Book

Published by Casemate this is a rather unusual book from their stable. It is a weighty hard-backed book written about the exploits of several main protagonists, all of whom are soldiers of fortune. It is clear on reading the book that this is no romantic handle not only because many of the voluntary combatants meet untimely and gruesome ends, but the ranks of which are peppered with psychopathic, violent individuals seeking an opportunity to practice their favourite pastime; killing. I was confused by some of the messages within the text, but came away with a sense of disquiet that, ultimately, the author has chosen a rather thorny subject to expose and in doing so gives it a whole lot of spin.

In our time, conflicts involving mercenaries are usually based in politically volatile regions with dubious objectives on both sides, fuelled by power and money. Wars are not cheap to fund; funds which the mercenaries take for their living, are regularly borne of suffering and misery on the behalf of the innocent victims of 'civil wars' between power-hungry demagogues in Third World countries. This, in its own right is a sad testament to the 'greater picture'. However, one cannot deny the quintessential character of man when driven by greed and opportunity.

The book has a rather rambling forward written by Frederick Forsyth, but in truth I suspect this part of the book is more egocentric than one would want. Forgive me for saying this, but I found this rather autobiographical on the part of Forsyth. Followed by this is a chapter of acknowledgments referring to those who have helped or influenced the author. As I said, this is a lengthy book, but tried my best to read all I could before I wrote the review. I found these first two introductory chapters almost self-congratulatory and cliquish as the latter is a seemingly endless list of names out of context to the man on the street.

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It is a somewhat different perspective given in this book than one would expect. The 'vocation' of a hired gun is plain and simple. Most of the conflicts covered are those in war-torn Africa in states where lawlessness, brutal repression and atrocity is the norm. One finds, however, the author is akin to likening the task of the mercenary to a 'humanitarian' role. I found this a little hard to swallow as both sides of many conflicts written about used mercenaries, men from many nations with different standards of humanitarian values. Let us not forget that these were hired killers with a mission; to do the bidding of the man in power, the leader with the money, whether he be 'government' or rebel. These positions at times are easily interchangeable in the fortunes of war.

Conclusion

That said, I think this 'War Dog' is a fascinating read, even though at times it seems to be the collected memoirs of a thrill-seeking war-junkie telling tales to the 'cognescenti' at the 19th Tee. Each section of the book is devoted to a different individual recounting their story or the time that the author spent with him during a given conflict. The read is easy, the pace is smooth and swift, the political agendas are clearly outlined and the abstract regarding weapons and opposing forces is well described.

There are a few pictures interspersed in the text, but mostly mug-shots of the main characters and of little value to any scale modeller.

I would recommend this book to anybody who has read all the war fiction that they can find and would like to read more factual biographical matter regarding mercenary actions in current-day conflicts. I, however, did not like this book.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing for the review sample

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