Ambien, Automatic weapons, and Bin Laden
Professional killers on Ambien with automatic weapons, what could possibly go wrong? In ‘No Easy Day’ by Mark Owen, a book that claims to give a close look at the Seals and the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, we find out.
The elite Seals receive thorough, state-of-the-art training and equipment (just one accoutrement, night goggles, cost $65,000) in order to succeed. But being human, they still bitch and moan about everything that interferes (in their view) with what they enjoy doing. After reading ‘No Easy Day’ I have an idea what that is. For America’s warrior class it is attacking the ‘enemy’. Others indoctrinate the gladiators with ‘facts’, but not language, history or culture of the enemy. Certainly not the predictable consequences of their killing and destruction.
The author recounts several missions in Iraq prior to the Bin Laden mission. I was amazed by his lack of imagination. How did he think the Iraqi civilians who have a helicopter drop onto their building (in error in some cases) as part of a night of terror would react? The results of the Seals indoctrination: terminal grumpiness and boredom. For example, even listening to the President thanking them for a successful mission in killing Bin Laden leaves the author bored and irritated.
Whomever the writer really is (Mark Owen is a pseudonym), he does a good job in many ways. The book is more revealing than expected. It shows us the alarming results of the ‘war on terror’. Just to be clear: in my view Bin Laden had it coming. So did a few dozen of his followers. I’m glad the Seals were successful in killing them. What our war on terror has unleashed is another thing though; one that increases rather than ends the madness.
