Saturday 2 February 2013

Bibliophilia: No Easy Day by Mark Owen & The Finish by Mark Bowden

No Easy Day: The Autobiography of A Navy SEAL: the Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden – Mark Owen

Read both of these books shortly after seeing Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. Read No Easy Day before The Finish because that is the order they arrived. But I should have, and recommend to anyone else reading them, read Bowden’s book first. It, like the movie gives an insight into the behind the scenes intelligence efforts and political wrangling, and devotes a short section to the actual raid itself. No Easy Day goes into the nitty gritty of the raid itself.

Both are good, and if you have interest in this story, read both.


Some fellas I know are none too pleased with Mr. “Owen” for writing this book, but it could be argued that an event of such historical significance deserves to be told by an insider. If he felt it was important enough to end up PNG’d from the brotherhood, that says something. (One thing I found weird about N.E.D. was that he makes no mention whatsoever of the stealth Blackhawks that were used. If it had gone off without a hitch, and no one was any the wiser about what was used, okay. Shut up about that secret technology. But given that it became public knowledge they had used them at about the same time it became public knowledge they had shot OBL in the face, it seems really peculiar that he studiously avoids any mention of it.) Whether he was wrong to ignore his NDA, all I have to say is, those boys are truly awesome.

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