Kill Bin Laden- Read it!

by Uncle Jimbo @ Blackfive.net
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341bfadb53ef015393084080970b
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Do you remember where you were when you heard bin Laden was dead? I do, and I remember doing a particularly festive version of the dead tango dance. Now imagine an entire book about it. Not just the op, but the intel, the surveillance, and the mission prep.  The wonderful thing is you know how it turns out: He gets shot in the eye (and elsewhere) and then fed to the fishes. You will be most pleased to find out exactly how the fish feeding was done - perfectly apropos.
The book is Kill Bin Laden and there was only one guy to write it, John Weisman, who turned Dick Marcinko's SEAL stories into the Rogue Warrior series and has written many other CIA and special ops fiction and non-fiction books. He has the contacts, the knowledge, the storytelling ability and the wicked attitude needed to make this work. It is a novel so artistic license was certainly taken. You often read that a story was "ripped from the headlines". Well the headlines about this mission have been so full of BS and spin that to say that about this book would be an insult. This "novel" has more reality embedded in it than anything you've read in the press.  Many public figures make thinly-disguised appearances:  You will enjoy seeing a number of these perfumed princes get punctured.
In the end, it boils down to a great tale about a great mission. The level of detail and accuracy regarding operations is team room level and the political machinations that always seem poised to derail these operations are laid out for inspection. No actual secrets or tactics are exposed as John vets all of his work with people in a position to ensure OPSEC. He adds characters and story lines to this feel-good win and fleshes it out into a book you will read with as few interruptions as you can manage. I think we all can be inspired by a double amputee, former Ranger, as a protagonist who battles his own challenges as well as our enemies.
There are few people on Earth who deserved a return to room temperature via cranial ventilation more than Usama bin Laden. Reading about how this went down is about the best thing I can think of, well......next to watching the helmet cam footage. Short of that, I highly recommend Kill Bin Laden.

Posted in: books, SOF