A SALESMAN'S PERFECT WAR

My neck seems finally to be approaching normal health again, now 
that the weather has suddenly turned so cold, wet, and windy that I 
still don't want to do many of the outdoor jobs I've been 
postponing until it's better. Anyway while I wait under blankets at 
my computer to see if the glimmer of sunlight peeking through 
outside now will make a thermal impact, it seems a good time to 
highlight one of the better documentaries among the many that I 
watched while laid up.

The BBC 'Storyville' documentary Bulletproof Salesman from 2008 
(which I found on EDonkey2000) is facinating on many levels. It 
follows armoured car salesman Fidelis Cloer as he enters Iraq, 
driving one of his company's armoured cars, after the 2003 American 
invasion. Narrowly avoiding ambush on his own way into the country, 
maybe either helped or hindered by his "don't shoot" decals on the 
car's doors, his first hotel room turns out to have been blown 
apart by an American tank which had fired upon and killed 
journalists working there during the conflict. The American troops 
around the hotel are seen acting casually in spite of passing 
locals shouting "fuck America". But the salesman sees that the 
chaos and lawlessness, visible as he moves between officials of the 
occupying US Army to demonstrate his vehicle, will soon envelop the 
occupiers themselves.

He explains that US officials sent to Iraq after the fall of the 
government hadn't been given armoured cars, with the army failing 
to foresee the danger of their position. Nevertheless they had huge 
budgets to tap into, largely unchecked, so as attacks targeting 
foreigners increased, a unique opportunity was emerging for 
salesmen like himself to go in directly and offer to fill such gaps 
left in ignorance by the broader US policy towards Iraq. He 
describes it as "the perfect war".

The documentary follows him for some time, witnessing the aftermath 
of car bombings, the growing resentment of the population, and 
corruption of the US officials. But it's framed within his window 
of perfecting his product to suit this impossible environment, also 
going back with him to his native Germany where he subjects test 
vehicles to ever larger explosive charges as the IEDs facing them 
back in Iraq become ever more destructive.

In the end he claims the corruption in Iraq forced him out to fresh 
pastures in Afghanistan - by then needing to pay bribes in Iraq 
just to secure a meeting with potential customers. He tried to 
report this corruption up to the US Army but they ignored him. It 
makes you wonder how many people in the US Army got rich off the 
occupation of Iraq. One hears of war crimes, but you never hear 
about outright corruption in a western military, yet it sounds like 
Iraq was (is?) a free-for-all. All you needed was one of this guy's 
armoured cars so you could stay in the country lining your pockets 
without the locals blowing you up. Pretty bizarre really.

He's still running the company today. A quick search suggests he's 
trying to sell his armoured cars in Ukraine now. Although I guess 
without as much American money to tap into there, the new wars 
aren't quite so "perfect". Maybe with the US war in Iran, ground in 
the middle east could become fertile for him again.

It looks like the documentary can be downloaded from the Internet 
Archive here:

https://archive.org/download/storyville_collection/Storyville%202009-03-02%20Bulletproof%20Salesman.mp4

 - The Free Thinker