I know we had a discussion of whether he should have written
No Easy Day or not in a previous thread. Well, I just finished the book and I don't believe any classified information not already known was disclosed. In fact, having read
American Sniper just before this, I think Chris Kyle's book may actually give more operational info than this one. Oh sure there are details of Neptune Spear that were supposed to be kept on the downlow that were leaked within days of the operation by every aide and politician that thought he knew something regarding the operation. In fact, the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the book seem, to me anyway, just an autobiography of his time in Team 5, his movement over to DEVGRU (Team 6) and his training plus the rescue of Captain Phillips of the Maersk Alabama. I think the main thrust of the book is to make sure that credit goes to the people it should go to. A certain president said he told one of his cabinet level appointees that he wanted finding UBL a top priority when in fact, it was already going on and had been going on for quite some time. Also, the author/SEALs DID NOT like men and women who sat on their buttocks in an office thousands of miles away and watched a video screen taking credit for the mission that had been presented to them by analysts and was carried out by 22 very brave Americans. Probably what stirred up so much fuss was simply that he told the raid story as he saw it. Plus the fact that they joked about how the President would be on TV telling how he killed UBL. Also joked about was who would play who in the movie when Washington released their version to Hollywierd. So yes, the book does not picture the Administration in a great light, gives credit to the CIA for finding him and the SEALS with Ranger support for getting him. Of course that would create a fuss in Washington. One other thing was what happened if the names leaked. One SEAL noted that when he got home a few days after the raid, a nice lady who lived across the street from him came over, said she had noticed he had been gone and hugged his neck. Others had told their families they were out of the country on a training mission. Military families and friends are not stupid. Hubby/Son/Neighbor leaves for training, a few days later bin Laden is shot by SEALs (that was leaked on Twitter) and a few days after that Hubby/Son/Neighbor comes home. Yeah, how hard was that to figure out.
If you've already made up your mind that he did wrong writing it, you won't like it. If you want to remain open minded, I think the book is worth a read. I payed full price for it but you might try to find a second hand copy.
Oh yeah, one thing I did learn about SEALs. Because their sleep schedules are so screwed up, these guys eat Ambien like candy.
If anybody locally wants to read it, I will be happy to loan it out. Of course you must present a letter that I get my pick of an S&W worth under $500 from your collection if you don't return my book.
Next on my read list is John Varley's
Slow Apocalypse. So I'm going from SpecOps to SciFi.
CW
Book Review - No Easy Day
Linear Mode
