"Hi all. For those of you who don't already know, I quit the job at the law firm and am now working for a private security company", states charismatic young Oxbridge graduate, James. "The contract is huge ... there are swarms of other security forces all over the place." But as James soon discovers, working in Baghdad is; "nothing like body guarding in Milan. Here we can do whatever it takes to protect our targets - we can clip cars, point weapons or just shunt them off the bloody road and keep driving".

In an intimate video diary, James wryly comments on the situation around him. "The CPA cafeteria is crawling with testosterone. By far the worst wannabes are the Italians. In one case, a guy plucked his eyebrows into two straight lines to make him appear to be permanently frowning." But the situation around him slowly deteriorates as insurgent attacks increase. "Last night, they attacked one of our houses for about four hours", James confides. "While we were on the roof firing back, Richard was on the phone to his wife trying to convince her that everything was okay".

"We're not going to be able to write the history of the Iraq war without talking about private security companies. And that's a huge difference from any other war," states political analyst Peter W. Singer. There are more private security operators in Iraq than there are soldiers from all other coalition countries combined. They fall specifically outside Iraqi law, operating with impunity. And increasingly, tasks previously reserved for armies, are being handed over to them.

Attracted by the lure of big money, many contractors arrive in Iraq with little idea of how to operate in a war zone. "You're seeing almost the Wild West," complains Singer. "You're seeing people jump in on these multi-million contracts and then try and figure out afterwards what to do." The antics of these cowboy operators places all other private contractors in danger. As adventurer Robert Young Pelton explains: "You're working in a Middle East country. It's not like someone will forgive you for shooting up their car. At some point, it's all going to come back to you."

Being a mercenary may be one of the oldest human professions but private soldiers have always been regarded with fear and mistrust. "They're a bunch of killers who are hired to kill people", complains one man at a protest against the now defunct private military company, Sandline. In Iraq, "the only rule I know of that security contractors operate under is that if they do something wrong, they get flown out of there immediately", states Robert Young Pelton.

Despite the growing international disquiet, the privatisation of warfare looks set to increase. "The private military industry is far bigger than people realise. Firms within the industry haul in a hundred billion every year," states Singer. Few people think the current situation can continue. Even private soldiers are calling for a system for global regulation. But as another mercenary acknowledges: "Yes there should be rules and regulations. But how do you regulate this many people from this many countries?"