My Friend The Mercenary By James Brabazon

Added: 2026-06-10

[00:00:00]It is time for a book review, a proper book review. And uh before I get too far into this book, let me state that this is not an anecdote about an actual friend I have who is a mercenary. It is literally the title of the book. This is My Friend the Mercenary by James Brabbazon, a memoir.

[00:00:24]And this was written in 2010.

[00:00:33]Now, I originally found this book for totally unrelated reasons to the actual what wound up being the actual content of the book. Uh but still interesting and still deserves a a spot on this channel. Um I was looking into the failed coup attempt by um several highlevel British folks.

[00:00:57]In fact, I had to write it down so I would remember and wouldn't have to shuffle around for it in the middle of the video. Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret Thatcher, was involved and I believe arrested as part of this plot.

[00:01:10]But it was Equatorial Guinea that was the target of this coup attempt by I believe mainly the British and the French and I think Zimbabwe might have been involved or something. But I remember when it happened in 2004. Um a uh a plane landed and they were able to they able to intercept this plane landing in Equatorial Guinea that wound up being full of weapons and mercenaries for an effort to start this coup. And then it failed and all these guys wound up going to jail. And this was all again this was all in 2004. Well, um, at the time that was like one of those things that was big news for like not even really a full day. I mean, the way the news cycle goes, um, it was talked about I, at the time, I I was listening listening to a lot of NPR in the Dallas area, and it was big enough news that Mark Thatcher, you know, son of Margaret Thatcher and Simon Mann and several other major British players were caught up in this deal that then got busted wide open by Equatorial Guinea and some other uh, African nations that were like, "Nope, not going to happen today." and uh and then it just all went away. Nobody talked about it. And I think it popped up briefly later because several of these guys were held in prison for a while and after their trials and all they when they finally got released, it made a little bit more news. But it was all it came and went very quickly and was kept very lowkey. And back probably about 20 uh 2018, 2019, somewhere in there, I was digging around about that. something happened that made me remember that whole coup attempt and I started looking for information. and I was trying to find a book on it and I found this book which this is not a book specifically about that coup. uh which was kind of disappointing for me, but the the subject matter of the book was still compelling enough that uh here we are with a video. And I think I did a video on this back uh years ago, but I thought it was probably deserved a little better treatment than what I did uh about it back probably four or five years ago.

[00:03:27]But um anyway, so this guy the the way this book unfolds, this is a guy James Brazon is a a reporter, a journalist who um who embedded himself with um these lur rebels. I think I'm saying that right. Lurd rebels in I believe Liberia.

[00:03:50]And all of this action in this book takes place kind of adjacent to or you know near the um equatorial Guinea. And yeah, all this is in like coastal uh you know, western Africa and in like Liberia and I forget what all other hot zones there are mentioned in this but it's but it's fascinating a fascinating view of how some of these kind of things unfold uh these coup attempts and some of that kind of stuff unfold at the ground level. And I say that because the guy's the purpose of this guy writing the book, he kind of spins the whole case into being about how he meets this fascinating mercenary guy and these are the tales of their exploits in Western Africa. uh because he recruits this uh mercenary who the subject of the story uh as his protection as he's embedded with these rebels um following the rebels as a uh video and photojournalist and all reporting on their activities.

[00:05:01]And you get the idea as it's moving along that they're hoping that his finance years are hoping that if these rebels get a a strong foothold, then this can kind of become this big uh feel-good piece about these rebels uh uh sticking it to the government forces and that this will be the, you know, the little guy up against the big guys and all that. and uh and it doesn't quite work out that way. So, we're we wind up with this book instead. And I think that's again, it's important peak behind the curtain at how some of this kind of stuff goes down because there's a few points of the book where he's debating about if he should even be filming some of the things that he's seeing and what the public's reaction might be if they knew about some of these things. Um, but uh it's a little I mean some of this the guy telling the story comes off as a little bit slimy which I suppose if you're doing that kind of embedded work with these rebel groups and not necessarily uh rebel groups in a it's kind of hard to find a good way to to put this because you don't get a you don't get good happy feelings about either side in any of this. It's it comes off everybody comes off as dirty in this. Uh but the kind of people you would need to embed with this kind of group uh are not going to be the best and brightest and most morally grounded um kind of people and just his odd the treatment of the way he tells the story and everything is is very strange. It it's it comes off as it's typical a lot of typical western journalism thing of I'm going to make myself the middle. I'm going to make myself the story. Um but one thing that many of you will find interesting about this book is in his tales of being embedded with this rebel group. He witnesses a couple of different executions of uh opposition soldiers of the government soldiers that they're fighting. And um one of them is incredibly graphic and barbaric. Uh and he winds up, as far as I could tell from what he says, filming the entire thing.

[00:07:21]And it's u involves dismemberment. And I mean, he essentially makes a a a snuff film for the for the rebel group. and it's um allegedly not intentionally, but he talks about how, you know, he can't really he's using the camera to put himself something between himself and this violence unfolding. Um, but it's one of the things that struck me about this the that scene in this book and the way it all unfolds is there's a certain kind of violence that involves a uh almost a ritual sexual element to it that seems to surface in warfare and almost almost universally surfaces within warfare. Um, and it's a really kind of creepy thing once you start realizing that uh almost in every armed conflict around the world, there are certain things when humans descend into these places, they do some really messed up stuff. And sadly, it's pretty consistent um across lines. Now, uh I would I wish that that wasn't the case, but sadly there's enough video evidence coming out of a lot of conflict zones now that uh uh it's it's just more rare now when we see it or it's more shocking now when we see it from in all Caucasian groups, but when it's mainly um African rebels against uh government forces also Africans, we don't really think too much about it. But when it's, you know, when it's Caucasian folks, it seems to be a little bit more shocking like some of the stuff uh coming out of Ukraine and and Russia now.

[00:09:06]Uh but overall, this is I I do think it's an it is an interesting book, hence it being here uh featured on the channel. Um I wouldn't just go way out of your way to get it. It's not like there's any specific missing piece of the puzzle that's in this. Uh, it was an interesting read. It definitely kept my attention. I I plowed through this pretty fast. I've got this part marked with uh that's Simon Man after his arrest. Um, the the main kind of meat of the book is all about his time embedded with these rebels and watching all the things happen to them and him kind of cheering them on and having these moral quandries periodically about whether or not these are the good guys or not. like when they execute this one guy, he really does start to think maybe I'm not fighting for the right team. Um, so anyway, I think it though it is a good again look behind that curtain to see how reading this, you can't help but see if this had gone a different way for these rebels, a more positive direction.

[00:10:17]Uh, a lot of the stuff he filmed probably would have been sanitized and presented to the public as a uh, very much a human interest story about how these rank and file just regular guys were overthrowing this uh, the evil government.

[00:10:31]And that's a part of it that I think is is really important to kind of understanding a lot of the things that happen and the way a lot of these rebel groups are used by intelligence agencies and exploited. Now, to be fair, that's never brought up in this. That's never pointed out that these guys are are being used by some intelligence agency, but you can't help but wonder that when you see um when you the context of a lot of this stuff unfolding and all the Western mercenaries that are kind of lurking in the shadows and stepping in at certain times and kind of hold his hand through this vetting process and then put him in place. um kind of acting as matchmakers. And oh yeah, and by the way, here's your here's you a mercenary to uh make sure you don't get killed probably by the by the rebels that you're filming. So, um the last part of the book is so again, the bulk of the book is documenting just the day-to-day life of him with these rebels as they're going through the jungle and with this mercenary as his personal protection.

[00:11:40]And then the last part of the book deals with uh his mercenary friend is winds up getting snared in this coup attempt. He was one of the South He's a South African and he winds up getting recruited as part of this coup coup effort and then he winds up spending time in a prison in uh Equatorial Guinea over that and then winds up getting released and then the last part of the book is him being re reunited with his mercenary Fred and u and there's some of that that just feels kind of uh I I don't know feels kind forced. It doesn't feel It feels like somebody trying to act like somebody's a closer, better friend than they really are. Um I think this mercenary dude, he might be a great guy. I don't know. He comes across as as a mercenary doing mercenary things. Um and the reporter guy seems to be trying really hard to apply some deeper uh more golden motive to all of this behavior when in fact it is cash money.

[00:12:47]That's that's what's driving this train.

[00:12:49]So anyway, this is a I think a uh a fascinating look behind the curtain.

[00:12:56]Again, I was a little disappointed just because I got it mainly to read up on Simon Mann and Mark Thatcher and hoping there was going to be maybe a little bit more insight into that. And it is presented as though these guys are wrongfully held at this prison even though they were uh involved in a coup attempt. And that's something I think in the west people forget about a lot that you know if you are part of a coup attempt or an assassination effort against a head of state that is typically a capital offense. So if you get thrown in a really nasty West African prison and it sucks to be there, you kind of already did better than just getting sumearily executed out on the airirstrip. So, um, so there's some things like that that it's always, uh, presented as though the the the African the Western African guys are the the baddies and the, uh, the British guys were just trying to lend a helping hand to the up and cominging rebels. But, uh, I do find it fascinating that that whole episode with Mark Thatcher has been pretty well scrubbed from, uh, from history. I mean, again, you can look it up. there's a Wikipedia page for it and it's out there. But if you're not out there actively looking for this like I did when I found this book, you're not going to find it. Um, so overall, um, if you're into just if you want to read kind of a combat memoir of a reporter hanging out with, uh, soldiers with, uh, you know, rebel groups and some pretty dark stuff happening. U,, this has got it. It's got all the the blood and guts for sure. Um, it's just sadly lacking in the department of more about the the coup. Again, there's information about the coup, but it never really gets into the part that that I think my audience would be more curious about of uh more what was happening with that. It's treated more as a human interest story of, hey, this mercenary buddy of mine that helped me in hard times watching these rebels, he winds up getting snared in this coup plot and uh barely makes it out of this West African prison. So anyway, I thought this would be a a good choice tonight to some lighter reviewing since I've been uh talking about the Talmid lately and uh some of you probably are looking for a little lighter break from that. So, hey, why not talk about some mercenaries kicking around in Western Africa? So, anyway, I I will link some other uh war related uh topics on the end screen, so be sure to check those out. And uh thank you for watching as always and big thanks to the members for your support of the channel.