Fainaru's travels in Iraq mirrored those of many of his subjects, who left the military and were enticed into the security market, where they could make $7,000 a month and leave whenever they wanted. Whether delivering Frappuccino mix to the Green Zone or VIPs to Fallujah, contractors are expected to follow Iraqi law, but neither the provisional authority nor the U.S. military has the power to enforce that provision. At the same time, contractors are often exposed to military-level dangers: After Fainaru finished his reporting on the Crescent Security Group, five of its employees were kidnapped when the convoy they were escorting was ambushed at a fake checkpoint. While Crescent blamed the victims, their families sat at home, impotent, as military investigators tried to find the culprits without leaving the Green Zone.
Engrossing as a mass-market thriller, Big Boy Rules spares none of the frustrations of trying to protect against an unpredictable enemy and make split-second judgments of relative risk out on the road. Fainaru focuses on the kidnapping and two other incidents of civilians being attacked by private contractors to vividly characterize the lack of control either Iraq or America has over these security companies, as well as the danger posed when the safety net they provide has been yanked away. Yet the devastation of his final chapter is tempered with disappointment when he batches his subjects and their employers together, in order to charge them with impure aims: Having begun the book with a condemnation of the early troop levels that first brought contractors into Iraq, he ultimately faults those who rise to the bait in Iraq without further indictment of the bait-setters.
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