Lone Survivor, Right Truth Book Club Review

"Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson, is the eyewitness account of Operation Redwing and the lost heroes of Seal Team 10 in Afghanistan. While this is a story about heroism, suffering, patriotism, and the kindness of strangers, it is also an indictment of American liberals, specifically the liberal media.

Marcus Luttrell was part of a four man sniper team sent to Afghanistan in a remote area near the Pakistan border, to find, track, and collect intelligence on a high-ranking Taliban leader with close ties to Osama Bin Laden. A group of goat herders happen upon the team and a decision must be made -- kill the goat herders, or let them go and risk them talking to the Taliban.

The decision the team made was based on fear, not fear of the Taliban, but fear of the liberal media back home. The decision to let the goat herders go was based on the present Rules of Engagement, and resulted in the deaths of three Seals, and the deaths of others who attempted to rescue these brave men.

An excerpt:

"When they find these bodies, the Taliban leaders will sing to the Afghan media. The media in the U.S.A. will latch on to it and write stuff about the brutish U.S. Armed Forces. Very shortly after that, we'll be charged with murder. The murder of innocent unarmed Afghan farmers." [Mikey]

I had to admit, I had not really thought about it quite like that. But there was a terrible reality about Mikey's words. Was I afraid of the Taliban? No. Was I afraid of the liberal media back in the U.S.A.? Yes. And I suddenly flashed on the prospect of many, many years in a U.S. civilian jail alongside murders and rapists.

And yet ... as a highly trained member of the U.S. Special Forces, deep in my warrior's soul I knew it was nuts to let these goatherds go. I tried to imagine what the great military figures of the past would have done. Napoleon? Patton? Omar Bradley? MacArthur? Would they have made the ice-cold military decision to execute these cats because they posed a clear and present danger to their men?

Lone Survivor is the personal story of Marcus Luttrell's week-long fight for survival from the Taliban, his fight to survive from his many injuries, and the surprising group that comes to his aid. I highly recommend this book. It is well written, touching. Emotionally, the reader goes from pride in our military, to anger at the decisions they are unnecessarily forced to make.

It seems only fitting that I finished reading this book on the July 4th weekend. Marcus Luttrell was rescued at this same time in 2005 from the mountains of Afghanistan after enduring almost 7 days of pure Hell. I salute Mr. Luttrell and all our military. I salute his team members, Lt. Michael P. Murphy and petty officers, Matthew G. Axelson, and Danny P. Dietz.

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Related:
Cop the Truth
Breitbart Interview with Marcus Luttrell
Glenn Beck Interview with Marcus Luttrell
123Beta, A Passage From Marcus Luttrell's, "The Lone Survivor"

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Comments

[Rob]

Lone Survivor has got to be one of the poorest reads I have managed to make it through in quite a while, totally full of jingoistic dogma which I find offensive and way off mark – really, really distracts.

As with the other reviews one will find on this book I do not wish to denigrate the lost souls of Seal Team 10 - these guys put up a helluva fight and I have the utmost respect for them – truly highlights the superior training, however, having said that the book boils down to maybe seventy pages - from the insertion to full contact compromised, to the loss of the Team, the rest of the book is wasted pulp – blather!!.

Those seventy pages left me filled with questions relating to the Team’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) such as why a four man team was used when the intel was telling them there were up to a couple hundred hostiles in the area. The six man team has repeatedly been shown to be more effective – two more guns may have made the difference, especially if a SAW and grenade launcher had been included (google Squad Automatic Weapon & M 203 grenade launcher), a few white phosphorous rounds might have bought some breathing room.

Marcus describes the reconnaissance point as a promontory which is the last place where someone hiding wants to be, they were on a ridge with at least one high speed trail, there was at least one hut in the area, the way it is written when they turned the goatherds loose they nonchalantly followed them up the mountain to another hide in full view of any observer. This whole section made me think fubar. SOP dictates the Team leader to do a fly over rather than just a photo and map study – this may have been out of the question for one reason or another, regardless there was no mention of an E&E plan (escape and evasion) and why did comms fail? Blah blah blah – one thing after another that may or may not have been done properly but the book definitely reads like it wasn’t. Why is there no mention of lessons learned from Mako-30 and the death of Neil Roberts? the skeptic in me wonders if the media is scrambling for another Jessica Lynch story coming into an election year.

One thing that the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have in common is the difficulty in remaining undetected during reconnaissance missions (Bravo Two Zero for instance 1st gulf), patrol technique has got to be highly modified, one would think this may have been addressed in detail or at least hypothetically somewhere in the book, maybe this is possibly classified - one would do well to study the movements of the snow leopard native to the mountains of Afghanistan, camouflage is critical - not a mention? The pattern exists for alpine rock –google roggenwolf.

I don’t know, the way the book reads is smelly to me –not killing the goatherds was the proper choice - it appears that SOP was not adhered to. There are many experiences to learn from – Soviet in particular but the British experience in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well – both were losers, we in turn shall be a loser - they and we do not understand or appreciate the tribal mentality - we are the bull in the china shop. Please read the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and Gertrude Bell -Queen of the Desert, also many accounts from climbing expeditions to this area have good insight into the Pashtun mentality.

Prosit absent Companions,

RH

[Debbie]

Yes, this is a true story. Just this week, Lt. Michael P. Murphy, member of the seal team, was awarded for first medal of honor for Afghanistan. What a brave group of men.

[bob ingram]

wonder if it is a true story or made up to many mistakes for a trained seal to get wrong a real seal anyway not bush propaganda

[Debbie]

Harold, I am looking for another book to read and for the Book Club to read. I'll check this one out. Thanks.

[Harold]

If you liked Lone Survivor, perhaps you would enjoy Inside the Danger Zone, the story of the U.S. military in the 1987-1988 Persian Gulf.

[Harold]

If you liked Lone Survivor, perhaps you would enjoy Inside the Danger Zone, the story of the U.S. military in the 1987-1988 Persian Gulf.

[Debbie]

Wasn't it a great book. It's getting good reviews, even on some sites I would not expect favorable comments. As Incognito says, damed if you do and damed if you don't. That's the situation these men, heroes, were in. The result the deaths of at least 19 Americans.

I'm looking for the next book for the Book Club. I'll let you know.

[Butch]

Debbie,

I finished reading the book this afternoon. Great review! Right on points! Mr Luttrell consistently nailed the MSM throughout his book.

That group of SEALs were REAL American heroes.

Here's hoping this book makes it's way to the big screen. Somehow, I doubt that it will...

[michael]

OT:
You've been tagged, Debbie:
http://olehmichael.blogspot.com/2007/07/tagged-again.html

[Angel]

sounds intriguing Debbie! :)

[incognito]

How sad..
damned if you do and damned if you don't.. figuratively and literally!