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Comment by fsloth | Hacker News Reader

The book "Dogs of War" by Frederik Forsyth is an excellent semi-fictional description of a mercenary operation very analogous to the ones described in the article. The book is mostly concerned not with gratuitous violence, but hiring, logistics and finance in a legally gray-and-illegal territory and such is a fascinating read.

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I remember reading that — I don’t remember the precise bureaucratic details - but the gist was if you tried to buy a single machine gun you wouldn’t be able to. “Of course they’re illegal for private citizens.” If you tried to buy 5000 machine guns, “Oh, just get this form filled notarized.”

For a nonfiction read (although biased toward the authors perspective) I highly recommend Eeben Barlow's book on his founding and work via Executive Outcomes

I recall the 1980 film inspired by the book to be "not bad", but it's been decades since I saw it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dogs_of_War_(film)

That book is fantastic. I found it via Byrne Hobart, who accurately pointed out that it's as much about project management as it is about a coup.

I've had that book on my shelf for years, but have never found the motivation to read it until I read your comment, but now I'll be giving it a read ASAP. Thanks!

In addition, "No Mean Soldier" by Peter McAleese. The autobio account of an SAS soldier turned mercenary.

A documentary about the attempt to kill Escobar that he was involved in has just come out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nTCjg40WCw

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