by Mark Owen, with Kevin Maurer
Dakota County Library hardcover 299 pages
genre: memoir
This was our book for school book club. It was apparently very controversial because SEALs are supposed to keep everything they do very hush-hush. The author said he got tired of listening to the president and lots of other people who weren't present at the raid on bin Laden's compound talking about the event (and the media for misreporting lots of info). So he wrote his own book talking about the SEALs and their missions, especially the mission to take out bin Laden.
I didn't enjoy this book. It was somewhat interesting, but I do not get excited about prose that is mostly full of military acronyms and "we got these weapons and got on this chopper and took out this target" language. It's just not the kind of language that an author like Cleave uses. And the whole "take out the target" mentality . . . you're murdering people. And whether or not those murders are justified, it's still murder. And think of the little kids who saw these men come into their home and gun down their father. Do you think they're going to grow up to have any willingness to work with Americans? I'm not just referring to the raid on bin Laden's compound - there were lots and lots of other "missions" with "targets" in Afghanistan, Iran, and other places. I can't wrap my head around the mentality that we (Americans) are doing this all around the globe and justifying it as fighting terrorists. I think many people in other countries see us as the terrorists.
My opinions did NOT go over well at book club . . . . guess I'm in the minority here.
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