War Dogs Mass Market Paperback – Illustrated, July 26, 2016

Excellent read!I heard about "the Dudes from Florida" way back in 2007 and possibly before. I was on the tail end of the long supply chain in Western Afghanistan. I received the "Chinese ammunition" and issued it to the Afghans. Even back then we were hearing strange tales of twenty something dope heads who were selling the junk ammo to the US Army for the Afghan war effort. It was insane then and reading about it now, it is surreal.I can tell you that much of what I've read in this book is authentic from my experience.I wrote about this issue a bit in my own book. (http://www.amazon.com/NO-REGRETS-American-Adventure-Afghanistan-ebook/dp/B00GR7C4OA)Fraud, Waste and Abuse is epidemic in Afghanistan even now. They may have tackled these kids but they were and are merely symptoms of the disease of incompetence that has plagued Military Logistics and Acquisitions since the Revolutionary War. No less a personage than George Washington himself decried the waste in Army procurement.The wretched truth is that the Army would probably have done an even worse job than these kids.Great Book, Great Read!

I read Efraim Diveroli's first hand account of this bizarre tale prior to reading Guy Lawson's version. After reading Diveroli's egocentric and headstrong perspective, Lawson's balanced and deliberate approach feels watered down and bland at times. Nonetheless, it's Lawson's version that most deserves to be read. Lawson does a good job of being fair in his treatment of the two embittered one-time partners, where Diveroli used nearly every mention of Packouz to disavow any shred of competency Packouz may have shown during their partnership. Lawson's journalistic approach lacks the brash page-turning heat of Diveroli's storytelling, but it shines with the closest semblance of truth most of us are ever likely to know about this incredible, nearly unbelievable, business adventure. Both books are well worth reading, but if you can only choose one, choose Lawson's.

I have no particular interest in arms trading, but I love a good read, and this jaw dropping true story kept me up reading until 3am! It is an incredibly well researched piece of journalism, but it reads like page-turning fiction - except this story is way too crazy to have been made up. Guy Lawson is at the top of his game here, letting us in on how two stoner teenagers (working at a kitchen table with two cellphones) were awarded millions of dollars of US government military contracts and how they deal with everyone from sleazy but world renowned international arms dealers to average Joe's taking advantage of the loosely regulated world of internet gun trade. I will never again be able to hear about troops being deployed anywhere for any reason without wondering where their weapons came from, and who procured them.

Author Guy Lawson's "Arms and the Dudes" reads much like what it was: a magazine article expanded and turned into a book. While Lawson's 2011 feature in Rolling Stone was widely lauded, his add-on in the form of 2015's "Arms and the Dudes" felt more mundane than it needed to be, the true absurdity of the crux bogged down with monotonous ammunition descriptions and tedious procurement procedures.It’s certainly no surprise, however, that with a bit of creative license, the story Lawson sketches would be widely appealing to Hollywood (hence "War Dogs") as it's one that fits quite comfortably in the stranger-than-fiction grouping.Bullheaded ringleader Efraim Diveroli and his masseur-turned-confidant David Packouz, a couple of twentysomething stoners from Miami with big aspirations, attempt to go head-to-head with the Viktor Bout's of the world in the notoriously disreputable and high-stakes game of international arms trading. And, perhaps most astoundingly of all, appear to be winning for a brief time when they score a $300 million Pentagon contract to supply arms for the fledgling Afghan army.While I found "Arms and the Dudes" to be duller than anticipated, it's undoubtedly an important read and proves to be nothing if not insightful. Lawson paints a damning portrait of the shoddy ineptitude that was too often present in the hazy early days of America's dual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.Throughout reading "Arms and the Dudes," I found myself continually reminded of Peter Van Buren’s "We Meant Well." The muddling bureaucracy associated with foreign nation-building, a general lack of forward thinking and the consequences of hurried outsourcing all play prominent roles in both.