Rating: 
Summary: Lucky it was Iraq and not North Vietnam
Review: Raid on the Sun is more than an explanation of the successful 1981 Israeli Air Force (IAF) attack on Iraq's al-Tuwaitha atomic bomb factory near Baghdad. The book is also a historical and contemporary explanation of Middle East politics and Israeli and United States politics in particular. The book is easy to read - good flow, a good war story, and creates admiration for those flying a high risk air attack. Too many books about Israel are propaganda overwhelming context. By contrast, author Rodger Claire is exceptionally objective and though some sources may be questionable, he definitively explains his sources in endnotes. The main story is an operationally detailed description of the attack from inception, political decision making, planning, intelligence, deception of the United States, the bombing run, right to the political aftermath. It's a good story well told and often from the pilot's point of view - the reader is often in the cockpit. The author also sets the context for the attack by explaining the duplicity, profit, and conspiracy of the French government to provide a bomb making nuclear capability to both Israel and Iraq [and now Iran]. Jacques Chirac is front and center. There are the usual Israeli jabs at the structured United States military and equipment. Demonstrably, the United States Air Force F-16 aircraft, the versatile fueling modifications, and training though not intended for this attack made the attack possible. You'll read about the IAF pilot unable to correctly use his navigation equipment, attacking the target off course, flying a 360 degree loop with full bomb load to successfully realign on the target. The F-16 is a great aircraft. A Mirage would have come apart at the rivets. There's a bonus in this book. The author offers the usual apologia about the deliberate attack on the U.S. Navy electronic spy ship Liberty [much earlier in the 1967 Mid East War] and the profuse regrets by the Israeli government (yea, right). But, here's the surprise. The Israeli Air Force pilot, Iftach Spector, who led the Liberty attack that killed and wounded about fifty American sailors, strafing life rafts as well, was also the squadron commander of the unit attacking the Iraqi nuclear facility. Spector presumably has a vision problem. He couldn't see the United States flag on the Liberty and was the only pilot to completely miss the Iraqi nuclear target. Credit the author, Claire, for his candidness. Most books by Israelis about the Israeli military paint a too self-flattering picture - best this, best that, best everything. Claire shows all the flaws. There's the puerile squadron commander, the one who can't bomb the target, successfully demanding he replace a junior pilot scheduled and trained for the mission. There's the ego centrism about who will lead the mission, abysmal operations and communications and KH-11 security, navigation errors, and the arrogance shown to US Air Force Air Police when the pilots were training in the States. There's a sense of arrogance about anything American - they violated the treaty with their best ally -- seemingly always manipulating the United States commitment to Israel. The excuse is sovereignty as to opposed to fidelity. Israel claims the best military intelligence in the world but they flew right over the King of Jordan's yacht on the way to Baghdad as the King alerted his own Air Defense. Of course the IAF avoided the formidable Iraqi Air Defense. But give us a break, the Iraqi Air Defense units shut down all their SAM and ZSU AAA systems to go to dinner right before the attack. Scrambling to get the last flight of Israeli F-16's, the Iraqi ZSU 23 crews stupidly fired their cannon rounds into other ZSU 23 crews. Lucky the IAF wasn't flying against the North Vietnamese. Confounded by world wide condemnation, Prime minister Begin responding publicly, confused, thinking he's describing the Iraqi nuclear facility instead mistakenly reveals the location of Israel's storage sight for Israel's 100 plus nuclear weapons 120 feet below the Israeli reactor at Dimona. Those are the weapons Israel denied. If you get the sense this wasn't a model operation, you're right. The author draws a final conclusion that the 1981 attack on al-Tuwaitha was the inspiration and legacy of the aggressive and preemptive Bush administration's strategic doctrine of preemption or "preventive war" against Iraq. A strategy advocated by Vice President Chaney, and his neoconservatives in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans , (specifically Dep. Sec. of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, and Pentagon and Likud (Israel's leading right wing party] policy advisor Richard Richard Perle.) Maybe so. This book will get you thinking. Despite all the world criticism endured by Israel for the attack, it just may have saved Allied troops from nuclear weapons in the Wars with Iraq.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent subject and writing
Review: Raid On The Sun is a very well written book, literally a "page turner". I couldn't put it down. I can't add anything others have already said here, but to the positive reviewer who nevertheless wished more dirt on France and Jacques Chirac, I would want to know more too. But perhaps much more would detract from the action that pushes the narrative of this book. All the details on Chirac might be better placed in a prosecutor's criminal complaint.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Military Tale
Review: Raid On The Sun is an amazing account on a successful military mission to destroy a nuclear reactor in Iraq. It is a non stop thriller, I could not put the book down once I picked it up. Not only is it such an enjoyable read, there is much backround information on Saddam Hussein that is indeed very interesting. The author does a most incredible job of relating this tale to the reader, it really touches you. You can feel for the people. I recomend this book to literally everyone. No matter who you are you will find something enjoyable in this novel. A definite read and a definite 5!
Rating: 
Summary: Black Hawk Down meets Charlie Wilson's War, squished.
Review: Raid on the Sun is fascinating, enthralling, and a quick read. I received it in the mail on a Saturday afternoon and finished it by Sunday night. Some reasons I liked it: The book is objective. While the book clearly celebrates the destruction of Saddam's nuclear facility, the Israelis are shown in the book to be ruthless and almost paranoid at times. The Mossad, Irael's version of the CIA, kills almost without conscience, all over the world. The book doesn't shy away from the "innocent" Frenchman who was killed in the attack on the Osirak reactor. Rodger Claire details the duplicity Israel used in fooling its most trusted and closest ally, the United States, in order to gain better information and equipment. In other words, it is not simply a white-washed pro-Israeli book. It gives both sides, which is nice. However, it does portray the Israelis as misunderstood heroes who were perhaps ahead of their time in understanding the threat of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. At the time, the United States officially condemned Israel for the strike, but clearly it was a gutsy move that the U.S. increasingly appreciates to this day. The book has a good pace. It's not merely about a bombing mission. It goes into how the mission was meticulously planned, how the pilots trained and prepared, how intelligence was gathered all over the world, and how internal political changes in France, Iran, Israel, and the United States factored into the crafting of the plan. I almost wish the book were longer and more in-depth; its brevity is one of its strengths and weaknesses all at once. The abbreviations are profuse, but there is a guide to them at the beginning of the book. After a a few dozen pages, the abbreviations (AAA, GCI, KH-11, MH-84, SAM, etc.) become easier to immediately identify and understand. I would definitely recommend this book to just about anyone, because it sheds some light on the way things are in the world today, and because it is a real thriller of a book. Weapons of mass destruction were not some mythical and fabricated justification for war in Iraq, based on the history in the region. Intelligence experts in 2002-2003 had good reason to believe the worst of Saddam Hussein and his progress at "going nuclear," given his past. The book details Saddam Hussein's quest for nuclear weapons, as well as his motives for seeking them, dating back to the early 1970s. I wish it had expanded on some of the Mossad activities, more of the political machinations, more of the policy ramifications, and more of the individual lives of the key players. In general, there could be much more amplification. But it is still an amazing book, and one you can probably finish on a plane ride or at the beach one afternoon.
Rating:
Summary: Great story about amazing events
Review: Reality is better than fiction, and this book proves it. Combining a detailed, analytic and often humerous decription of the raid and meticulous preparations for it, including inter-personal dynamics and ego wars within the Israeli defense establishment, with zesty morsels of Mossad operations in various countries, this book tops any 007 account. How grateful the US, Iran, Saudi Arabia and many other countries should be for the elegant and courageous work of the Israeli Air Force.
Rating:
Summary: Captivating Story
Review: Rodger Claire's story of how Israel denied Saddam Hussein the atomic bomb in 1981 reads better than many spy thrillers. Author Claire smoothly sets the stage in explaining the genesis of the book, providing a brief history of Saddam Hussein's childhood and rise to power, the failed diplomacy, and the assassinations of scientists and destruction of vital equipment by Israeli agents before the F-16s were sent to bomb the Osirak nuclear facility in Al-Tuwaitha just south of Baghdad, Iraq. The book includes a map, a helpful table of abbreviations and several meaningful pictures. On more than one occasion, I reviewed the map of the region that provides a graphic depiction of the Osirak attack route, neighboring countries, major cities, rivers and bodies of water. The story is well told. However, I would have appreciated more detail about France's assistance with Iraq's nuclear program and the economic details of the relationship. Also, a final chapter that summarized the believed progress of Iraq's nuclear program over the succeeding two plus decades would have been interesting. In the "it made me chuckle" category is a reference in the first edition on page 151 to "her in-laws" when "his" is intended.
Rating: 
Summary: Fortune favors the bold
Review: The first part of this book, the cloak and dagger material featuring the Mossad, is drawn from Victor Ostrovsky's _By Way Of Deception_ and reportage by Seymour Hersh. These sources have generated considerable skepticism and controversy in the past, so reader beware.
The second part, focusing on the actual mission, is better. Rodger Claire was granted access to the mission pilots themselves, and their stories are first rate. They were superbly trained, highly motivated, and fiercely competitive. While cross-training on the F-16 in the United States, they impressed the USAF trainers with their incisive technical questions. At the time of this mission they were possibly the best fighter pilots in the world.
This section of the book answers a lot of mysteries, such as how the mission succeeded on a single tank of fuel per plane, how they avoided enemy interception, and why one of them missed the target. Also valuable is material from an interview with an Iraqi nuclear scientist, showing French perfidy in selling Saddam the reactor and uranium in the first place, and his eye-witness account of the Falcons swooping in to bomb his place of work. Thankfully for him, he was gettin his car fixed.
There are a number of annoying factual errors; for instance, Israel did not have F-4 Phantoms during the 1967 war, nor was the F-16 a U.S. Navy aircraft. There are also some surprises. Most of us know that mission pilot Ilan Ramon died in the Columbia disaster, but it's interesting to learn that another pilot, Iftach Spector, led the mistaken attack on the USS Liberty during the 1967 war.
Given the caveats about the first part of the book, I recommend it heartily. These brave pilots and their audacious mission bought the region a precious few more years to deal with Saddam. A bulls-eye!
Rating:
Summary: Tightly Written Tale With Relevant Overtones
Review: The precision of this operation's execution and the Israeli government's seemingly cavalier attitude in ordering such a strike have long interested me. Additionally, I'm a sucker for books showing how a seemingly flawless event was actually composed of missteps and near catastrophes which were overcome with hard work and strong leadership. Given all these qualities, it's no surprise that I had high hopes for Raid On The Sun. Fortunately, I was glad to find that the book met the expectations I had set for it.
Claire does an excellent job of laying out the reasons why the Israelis felt the need to perform this mission, the physical and tactical issues which made this attack almost impossible, the struggles to successfully complete it, and the operation's political ramifications. My only complaint is that the various elements don't get explored in more depth than what is presented. For instance, I would have preferred to have found out more about the reasons why some high ranking members of the Israeli military opposed the operation. While it didn't go into the all the depth I would have liked, Claire details the mission in an easy to read manner that more than adequately conveys its magnitude.
Given the current situation in Iraq, Raid On The Sun seems to be an exceptionally relevant book. But, regardless of whether or not one sees in this story an analogy with the current situation, Raid On The Sun is worth reading because it gives appropriate recognition to an extraordinarily dangerous military action.
Rating:
Summary: A much needed account of the daring raid
Review: This is the much anticipated account of Israel's record breaking raid on the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor. During the 1970s the French, beginning their long relationship with the Iraqi Ba'athist regime, began shipping parts for a nuclear reactor to Baghdad. The reactor at Osirak was almost completed in 1981 when PM Begin ordered a lighting raid to destroy it. The heroic mission of Israeli pilots ranks with Entebbe in the history of daring raids against terrorist regimes. Here is the story, finally, told in its fullest glory after more then 2 decades. Here one will once again learn of how Israel, against all odds, dealt with the Iraqi menace 10 years before America was confronted with the same regime. In fact Israel was taking the lead in destroying the same 'Weapons of mass destruction' that future American administrations would complain about. This is a wonderful blow by blow, minute by minute account from the diplomacy of the 1970s to the actual raid. The text is quick and witty and the reader will enjoy the fast paced narrative of this much needed account of a forgotten military raid, that may have saved the world from a nuclear armed Iraq. Anyone who enjoys military non-fiction or Middle Eastern conflicts will love this book, also anyone interested in the Saddam regime and Iraq will enjoy this fresh new account. Seth J. Frantzman
Rating:
Summary: Exciting, true thriller
Review: When the United States invaded Iraq last year, one of the main objectives was to deny Saddam Hussein the use of weapons of mass destruction. More than two decades earlier, Israeli intelligence sources had already confirmed that Hussein was conducting a secret atomic weapons program and gearing up to produce weapons grant plutonium. When Israeli Air Force pilots staged a daring military operation and bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, world reaction was harsh and the United States joined in the universal condemnation of Israel. The world would not be as safe today if these brave men had failed in their mission. Now, for the first time, it is possible to read an inside account of one of the most daring military operations in recent history. "Raid on the Sun" by Rodger W. Claire tells the story of Hussein's relentless attempts to achieve nuclear weapons as part of his plan to obliterate Israel, and of the small group of Israeli pilots whose complicated, and nearly impossible mission would be to cripple that plan in efforts to safeguard their country. For more than two decades, details of the attack, as well as the identities of the pilots, remained classified. But Claire, an investigative reporter, gained access to the Israeli commander who planned the raid and subsequently was the first journalist to speak to the pilots. "Raid on the Sun" reads like an exciting thriller; in the tradition of "Black Hawk Down" it captures all the details of the behind-the-scenes political intrigue, the state-of-the-art fighter bombers and the personal stories of the pilots whose mission faced seemingly insurmountable challenges. Claire spoke with David Ivry, the former Israeli Air Force commander who later became Israel's Ambassador to the United States. Claire interviewed the IAF pilots who participated in the raid. One of the pilots with whom Claire spoke by phone was Ilan Ramon. Ramon agreed to get together with Claire for an extensive follow-up interview after he returned from participating in the Columbia space shuttle mission in 2003 as Israel's first astronaut. Tragically, that meeting never took place. "You must be successful, or we as a people are doomed," then-IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Rafael Eitan told the mission pilots before they left on Operation Babylon. Flying to the east, with the setting sun behind them, the IAF pilots beat the odds and leveled the Osirak reactor in just one minute and twenty seconds. "Raid on the Sun," an extraordinary true story of Israel's successful air raid that destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor, is fast-paced, suspenseful, and an exciting read.
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