Hearts and Minds

War is hell and sometimes hell offers opportunities.

When the United States military comes calling, we come with not only the best weapons on the planet and a bunch of hard ass soldiers, but with enough cash to buy anyone who stands in our way.

But nothing is ever simple in war...or in Iraq.

Harry Moore was a hustler from Alabama.

Smart, good looking, but far too lazy, Harry joined the Army because they were the only chance he had to get someone to pay for a law school degree through their Funded Legal Education Program (FLEP).

But when his name didn't make the yearly list his plan collapsed and he became desperate. He hated the Army and hated being told what to do and when to do it.

Structure and discipline interfered with his relaxed attitude towards life.

He didn't want to wait another year to reapply.

At the same time Harry's dream collapsed another untraceable shipment arrived where he worked, at Building Seven of Baghdad International Airport (BIAP).

No paperwork, no computer records, just a high ranking officer and a civilian who arrived with the shipment and kept it under verbal command only.

The few who figured out that the shipments existed suspected they were cash from the CIA.

Harry recruited the hardest soldiers he knew, including Julian a young man who needed therapy more than a gun, and Mamo, a man much too nice to be at war. But with Mamo at six foot seven inches tall nobody bothered to discover the real man inside of the mountain standing in front of them.

Harry also recruited an young Iraqi thief and his friends.

The money was part of a secret deal between the CIA and the chief strategist for one of the largest insurgencies, run by a popular Shia cleric. For the right price, attacks would stop.

Bob Hunter and Tareef Jamal negotiated the agreement in a London safehouse..

The cleric that Tareef advised had a plan to change Iraq drastically. But he needed money and power to succeed. He had a plan to get both and would soon be the most powerful man in Iraq.

While he was at war Julian's wife Tina was having an affair with Eddie Moran, a sociopath kept on a short leash by his loving but career criminal father.

When Julian told his wife about the money, she told Eddie.

Eddie told his father and they came up with their own plan.

They put together a team which included a young Dennis Trunk.

Read Hearts and Minds, a Trunk story from years before you met him in Smoke and Mirrors.

'Never aim for the apple. There are much better targets' - Trunk

Fictional violence? Yes
Imaginary sex? Yes
Words your mother won't like? Absolutely