Mercenaries - Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today s Private Military

Informationen zum Autor Michael Lee Lanning retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel after more than twenty years’ service. During his assignment to Vietnam, he served as both an infantry platoon leader and a company commander in the 199th Infantry Brigade (Light). He is the author of fourteen books, including Inside the LRRPs, Inside Force Recon, and Inside the Crosshairs. Klappentext SOLDIERS OF $$ Privateers! contract killers! corporate warriors. Contract soldiers go by many names! but they all have one thing in common: They fight for money and plunder rather than liberty! God! or country. Now acclaimed author and war vet Michael Lee Lanning traces the compelling history of these fighting machines-from the "Sea Peoples” who fought for the pharaohs' greater glory to today's soldiers for hire from private military companies (PMCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. What emerges is a fascinating account of the men who fight other people's wars-the Greeks who built an empire for Alexander the Great! the Nubians who accompanied Hannibal across the Alps! the Irish who became the first to go global in their search for work. Soldiers of fortune have always had the power to change the course of war! and Lanning examines their pivotal roles in individual battles and in the rise and fall of empires. As the employment of contract soldiers spreads in Iraq and America's War on Terrorism-the U.S. paid $30 billion to PMCs in 2003 alone-Mercenaries offers a valuable inside look at a system that appears embedded in our nation's future. Includes eight pages of photographs 1   First Mercenaries   They go by many names—mercenaries, soldiers of fortune, wild geese, hired guns, legionnaires, contract killers, hirelings, condottieri, contractors, and corporate warriors—these men who have fought for money and plunder rather than for cause or patriotism. Soldiers of fortune have always played significant roles in warfare, they are present on the battlefields of today, and they certainly will be a part of whatever combat occurs in the future.   For centuries the marching song and drinking toast of these hired soldiers has been, “Long live war, long live death, long live the cursed mercenary.” On land, in the air, and on the sea, these soldiers of fortune have influenced kingdoms, religions, and peoples of all nations since the beginning of time.   Humans have roamed the earth for about a million years, and their presence long predates their ability to create lasting records. Nothing exists to prove exactly when men first adapted stones and clubs as tools for hunting and weapons for fighting their neighbors over choice hunting grounds, caves, water sources, or women. Except for a few cave paintings, there are no archives of man’s activities until about five thousand years ago.   Based on these five thousand years or so of recorded history, there is no reason to think that early man was any different from his modern counterpart in the preparation for and execution of war. Whether for territorial expansion, personal gain, or just the pure pleasure of it, war is most certainly as old as mankind itself—and as warfare evolved, so did the profession of soldiering for hire.   Archaeologists can provide insights into the long period of unrecorded history. The occasional fire pit, rock chip, or bone fragment prove man’s existence, but little is known about his daily life or his eventual evolution into bands that warred with each other.   A rare look at early man occurred with the discovery in 1991 of a frozen corpse in an Alpine glacier at 10,500 feet on the Italian/Austrian border. Testing showed that what became known as the Iceman died about 5,300 years previously. Scientists initially thought the Iceman, nicknamed Otzi, had likely frozen to death in an early season snowstorm, but they could not explain why he was leaving a lush valley to make ...

Product details

• Authors: Michael Lee Lanning
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 27.09.2005
• EAN: 9780345469236
• ISBN: 978-0-345-46923-6
• No. of pages: 296
• Dimensions: 107 mm x 175 mm x 16 mm