James Ashcroft - Making a Killing - The Explosive Story of a Hired Gun in Iraq

The deadlock was only broken when former premier Ibrahim al-Jaafari had a ‘change of heart’, reported Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman, after two separate meetings, one with the United Nations envoy Ashraf Qazi, the other with two men whose names will, in my opinion, dominate Iraqi and Middle East politics for many years to come: Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shi’ite cleric in the country, and our old friend Moqtada al-Sadr, the head of the Mahdi Army.

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani kept his job as President in spite of past ties with the CIA, Iranian intelligence and Saddam Hussein. In this largely ceremonial post, Talabani is the first non-Arab president of an Arab country.

George W. Bush, facing his lowest poll ratings since becoming President of the United States, said the move towards establishing a new government in Baghdad ‘will make America more secure… and as more Iraqi troops stand up, more Americans can stand down’.

With his usual keen sense of timing, Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said in a tape broadcast by satellite TV Al Jazeera that the West’s moves to isolate the new Hamas-led Palestinian government prove it is at war with Islam and that ‘along with their governments, the people of the West bear responsibility for the Zionist crusader’s war against Islam’.

24 July 2006

I could have written four or five books with all the things that happened to me and the guys at Spartan over eighteen months and what makes me sad is that now, twelve months on, nothing much in Baghdad seems to have changed.

Seamus and Les split their time between Western Europe and the USA. Badger does Afghanistan and Iraq. Dai still suffers from Tourette’s syndrome but continues bodyguarding VIPs and celebrities all over the world. The Yaapies have all remained in Iraq but are finding things difficult due to pressure from the South African government. I plan to visit Mad Dog McQueen and see his famous gun collection in the near future.

Sammy◦– Wing Commander Assam Mashooen◦– saved his money to build a house for his family and parents. In spring 2005 his brother was kidnapped and he had to sell the house and take out a loan to pay the ransom.

Colonel Faisal is dead.

Major Razak was kidnapped, tortured and killed on video by an insurgent group in 2005. He had been a brave and loyal companion.

Colonel Ibrahim rides high as the Shias take power with a senior role at the Water Ministry, and rules his private army with a Ba’athist-like rod of iron.

John Hind got his promotion. He was posted to Washington and as a one-star general is a special advisor on Iraqi infrastructure security. Holy shit.

Looking at the violence today, which is becoming more and more polarised between Shia and Sunni, I can only say that we all saw it coming because it was already happening.

In 2006, the Iraqi Body Count charity estimates that approximately 36,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of this war. They use multiple sources to confirm each death and are generally recognised to be the most accurate record. I believe that many more have died unreported. Many people will automatically assume that Iraqi civilians have been killed by Coalition Forces. The truth is the Iraqis have been and continue killing each other. So much for the claim that there had been ‘no history of ethnic strife in Iraq’.

I hope the neo-cons in Washington have woken up now and got some oxygen to their collective brain.

In 1991 George Bush Senior did not finish off Saddam Hussein because there would have been a power vacuum with nothing to balance against Iran. Now Americans are having to come to terms with the fact that, having brought democracy to Iraq, the 60 per cent Shia majority population have voted for a Shia leadership.

How many times during the local elections did I hear CPA officials saying, ‘I don’t understand, they’re voting for the wrong guy.’ Well, it’s a funny old thing democracy, isn’t it? Unfortunately the world, and especially Iraq, is not full of people waiting to be freed so that they can act like little Americans. None of the projected strategies survived contact with the reality of Iraq because during the planning process no one really asked the Iraqis what they wanted.

At the time of writing Iraq has a largely Shi’ite government, army and police force.

And Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shi’ite cleric in Iraq, is an Iranian.

Unfortunately I cannot say when the troubles will end. In the UK we took 700 years from the signing of the Magna Carta to develop our democracy fully. The former republics of Yugoslavia have taken more than a decade to try and stabilise their economies and governments since their war finished.

Ten years or 700 years? I should imagine the Iraqis are going to take somewhere in between.

The worrying thing for me is that with all the anti-war rhetoric we now see in the media, future political leaders may not have the moral courage to launch another war when one is actually needed.

Islamists describe PSDs working in Iraq as anti-Islamic mercenaries, without looking at what the PSDs actually do. Coalition or Multi-National Forces may be prosecuting the war, but PSDs in Iraq for the most part safeguard the reconstruction crews and are helping to rebuild the country. The water purification plants I protected prevented outbreaks of typhoid, cholera and gastroenteritis and have directly saved the lives of thousands of Muslim children, the sick and the elderly. PSDs don’t get paid to kill people. We get paid to save lives and stay out of trouble.

So, all you Islamists and fundamentalists out there, do me a favour and stop whining about how I am oppressing Muslims by escorting humanitarian supplies and medical aid workers to the local population, or journalists who publicise the plight of the helpless. At the same time maybe one of you can start a website explaining how blowing yourself up and killing a busload of Muslim schoolchildren or a marketplace full of mixed Sunni and Shia Muslims qualifies for paradise, exactly?

Although I love slagging off our old enemy, the French, I have to admit that I have been impressed by their soldiers on operations and one of the best guys I met in Iraq was a Frenchman; an experienced soldier of fortune who lives the kind of life other men dream of. Richard, wherever you are, you lunatic, I hope you are well. I am living a life with some remorse but no regrets. Roger and Vance, I hope you two are also well.

They will debate for decades whether it was right or not to invade Iraq. Personally I disagree completely with the reasons presented by Bush and Blair to justify the war, but I must also say that I fully support every soldier sent out there, American, British and other Coalition Forces, who should be proud of the outstanding work they are doing in often impossible situations.

The Erebus UK contract worked out well for me. Krista and I got married three months after our second daughter, Veronica, was born. We have all moved out and are living happily in Africa where I work full time for a private security company.

I still intend to return to Iraq one day and climb the melwiyeh in Samarra with Sammy. But it will be a cold day in hell before I eat lamb again.

.50 cal12.7mm calibre anti-materiel round; also a term used to refer to the Browningmachine gun.

5.565.56 × 45mm calibre rounds, standard NATO calibre since 1979.

7.62 long7.62 × 54mm round, Soviet rimmed cartridge fired in the PKMand Dragunov; also designated 7.62 x54R.

7.62 NATO7.62 × 51mm round used in the GPMGand rifles such as the G3and FAL.