In his short and tragic life, adventurous soldier Stephen Carr fought three overlapping wars.
First, influenced by Ronald Reagan's words, he volunteered to join the Central American Contras and witnessed these “freedom fighters” trafficking in arms and drugs. Second, he exposed Washington's lies and infuriated it. Third, Carr struggled with his addiction to cocaine, which took his life - or should I say, his life?By reviewing rarely used documents and original interviews, Alan McPherson sheds light on the anonymous figures that were filling up the scheme of privatizing the military hidden within the Iran-Contra scandal, the biggest scandal of the 1980s. While many believed the Contras to be anti-communist heroes, the fact that dozens of Americans volunteered for an undeclared proxy war exposed the ugliest aspects of informal warfare: profiteering, corruption, secrecy, and attempts to meddle in politics - all of which overwhelmed Carr.Brave journalists, senate investigators, a public defender, and other exploited patriots tried to help Carr tell their stories but were silenced. Privatized wars have proliferated since the Cold War, and Carr's suffering serves as an example to those who entrust the most dangerous task society can undertake - fighting war - to selfish individuals and companies.
