Rating: 
Summary: Good reading with some reservations...
Review: I recently had finished reading "Army at Dawn" and was hungery for a shorter more modern military history. By the way, "Army at Dawn" was a great read, excellent in details and a full military history from WW2's N.Africian front. For me Moore's book was interesting and was worth the read, if you are interested in Afganistan and or curious in this supposedly new unconvential warfare. It is probably hard to write and collect detail and factual information about modern or current covert and unconvential operations due to their very natures. Moore seemed to have enough contacts to put this book together, and presented a good picture of what must of happened in Afganistan right after 9/11. I had read "Bush at War" and was shocked at how slow it seemed to take the convential US military to mount an operation. Thankfully the US SOF are by nature able to repond faster and were impressive in how they accomplished their mission. My reservations would be that details, any history, personal information was lacking or never fully developed that would have made the subject more interesting. I am sure most special forces types don't care to share all their secrets and methods either. Each chapter covered the operation of a SF team in a specific area, therefore it seemed each chapter was a templete of each other, if that makes sense. The prison riot that resulted in the CIA operative's death was covered, and how some felt Taliban Walker was not as naive as discussed in the major news media. Some of the other reviewers here have hinted that Moore wrote mostly fiction, but they did not offer reasons or where or how he was off on his story. It stands to reason though this is very new subject matter and is a story that needs to be told.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I found this book to be fascinating, and really informative. An indepth covering of Army Special OPS teams, and the work they did in Afghanistan. The book carefully tells a very unreported story of how 100 or so Green Berets toppled the Taliban regime through superior tactics and airpower. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Fiction, Maybe, NON-fiction...NOT!
Review: Funny how people will believe everything you read, unless you know the truth. The people who know the truth know this book is fiction, but of course you have REAL Special Forces with real names. ... these "quiet professionals" never asked for this, never gave permission to use their names, and some of the missions didn't take place. It's pretty bad when SF soldiers won't even buy it...(only their wives because they think it's so great having their husbands names in a book) Get Real!!!
We can't blame Robin Moore. He was used by Keith Idema in order to give himself the glory. Oh, how the plot thickens if you start looking at Idema and who he really is. Now that would make a good book!!
Rating: 
Summary: Somewhat like a non-fiction Tom Clancey novel
Review: This is a good look into what the news media would never have been able to report. It gives insight to the Special Ops folks and their world. You will likely come away with more respect for these elite, unconventional warriors of our armed services and also some understanding of the Afghanistan culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Details - Disappointing Book
Review: Although I was very impressed with the details in this book and learned a lot, as a book I found it very slow reading that did not flow well. I have great respect for the Special Forces and admire what they do but Moore's style of writing made you think he was going far overboard and exaggerating too much. Even if everything Moore says is 100% true, his way of writing this made you tend not to fully believe him.
If I was related to a member of the Special Forces, I would probably feel this was a tremendous book.
Rating:
Summary: The New Face of Warfare
Review: Before the day of September 11, 2001 ended, a meeting was taking place in Tampa at the headquarters of Special Operations Command and Central Command. Owing to the depletion of our military arsenals in Bosnia and our military capabilities having been reduced by 40% during the Clinton years, Gen. Franks was faced with a serious problem. He knew the U.S. didn't have enough cruise missiles, smart bombs and ammunition to back a conventional war in Afghanistan. He also knew it would be political suicide to tell the White House and Rumsfeld we weren't ready for war.Lt. Col. Dave Miller of the U.S. Special Operations Command understood the situation and conceived a plan that would map the future of the Special Forces. First a dialogue and connection had to be established with the Northern Alliance (NA) and other Afghanistan resistance groups. Next, personal relationships between those leaders and Special Forces had to be developed and, third, supplies and money had to be delivered in bulk to conduct the fighting against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Fourth, U.S. air power. The plan also called for teams of usually 12 men each, each man a specialist, to coordinate activities and call in air support. This type unconventional warfare was precisely the reason for creating Special Forces. But unlike their predecessors, these A-Teams would be high tech, deep targeteers for twenty-first century smart weapons. At the end of Col. Miller's presentation, Gen. Franks was convinced that Special Forces would have to carry the war to the enemy in Afghanistan. Their story is told in chronological order, following each A-Team as it established contact with local commanders. The pattern was somewhat similar with each team. Night insertion in country, dangerous and difficult travel to the safe place of each general, followed by preparation of a "needs" list. Supplies would be air dropped, local fighters re-supplied and trust would be established slowly. Once the first battle was engaged and the teams called in precision laser guide ordinance on target, time and time again, their value was immediately apparent to all the NA mujahadeen. The results were nothing short of staggering. Less than 200 men on the ground targeting for air support and lending small arm support to the NA turned the tide of war in Afghanistan. Their skill, daring and courage, even after long years of political neglect, should make us realize that there has always been such men and, hopefully, there always will. This is a remarkable story of the silent professionals of the Special forces. If Mr. Moore at times becomes somewhat of a cheerleader, it is due in large part to the fact that there is much to cheer about.
Rating:
Summary: Misleading...
Review: The author in typical arrogant fashion said that the Green Berets succeeding in defeating Al-Qaeda, Taliban forces in just a few months. He contrasts this to Soviets who could not defeat Afghanistan in 10 years of warfare. What author fails to know is that Soviets did not have support of majority of Afghan people while the US knew that the general Afghan populace detested the Taliban. The US also had their gladiators- the Northern Alliance and other forces to do the majority of fighting and dying for them plus overwhelming power in air. Their foes did not get constant weapons supplies either. Hence this comparison with the Soviets is misleading.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Literary Research
Review: Chapters 19, 20, 21 were written without conducting proper research to determine the accuracy and the veracity of the information. As a matter of fact, most chapters in the book left out key interviews that would have been helpful to the reader in seeing the correct historical events. LTC Fox was never interviewed and the operations officer Major Bolduc referred to as slightly injured (but will be having his left hip replaced as a result of his injuries) developed the plans for LTC Fox during the Southern Afghanistan Campaign was never interviewed. None of the HQ personnel who were injured and refused evacuation were interviewed either. How can you write about operations without consulting the individuals who made the decisions and planned the operations? You can't! Instead you lead the reader to believe that the SF soldier is infallable and those at the higher levels are incompetent. The access you had to put together a quality, fair historical account was wasted on vindictive little minds that spinned the truth. I was there, I know.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book!
Review: This book was a very good coverage of the war on terror in
Afghanistan.The author taked you through the first meeting in Tampa,Florida. You are next taken into the role of the Special Forces and the Green Berets in the destruction of Taliban and Al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan. The author shows some of the tactics that were sucessfully used on the enemy.You are also given insight into the frustrations of tracking down the terrorist leader Osama Bin-Laden. This is an interesting book
that gives you valuable insight in the role of Special Forces and
the Green Berets in the war in Afghanistan.An action packed book
that you will enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: THE STORY AS IT WAS
Review: THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN IS AN OUTSTANDING BOOK FILLED WITH THE DAY TO DAY EXPLOITS OF THE GUYS THAT WERE ACTUALLY THERE IN AFGHANISTAN.
YOU READ THE STORY AS IT HAPPEND WITH NO PUNCHES PULLED TRULEY AN OUTSTANDING READ BUY IT.
|
