Hunting Al Qaeda: A Take-no-prisoners Account of Terror, Adventure, And Disillusionment - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 076032252X ISBN 13: 9780760322529

Publisher: Voyageur Pr, 2005

Synopsis

When the citizen-soldiers of Beast 85 went off to fight the enemy, they could not have imagined that the largest obstacle they would face was not the suffocating heat, disease, or even the enemy itself, but an increasingly risk-averse high command and the modern American military’s culture of ""playing it safe."" Even while being shot at, they were not allowed to shoot back, ending up sitting on their hands for days and weeks on end. Then, the men of Beast 85 did what Green Berets do; they found a way to get the job done. They hunted, cornered, and captured some of the highest-level terrorists in Afghanistan, including 1) one of the Taliban’s top generals, 2) the man responsible for a brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign, and 3) a key player in the assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud (the ""Lion of Panjshir"")?a man who struck fear into Osama bin Laden’s own cold and murderous heart. But their actions only seemed to rile the military’s play-it-safe leadership, who at every turn let the bad guys slip away to fight another day. That did not deter Beast 85, who proved themselves collectively to be one of the gutsiest and bravest units in the war. Written by the men who were there, Hunting al Qaeda takes no prisoners in its critical look at what went right (plenty, when they were allowed to do their job), what went wrong (plenty more), and what happens when Green Berets are unleashed in the most hostile place on the planet.

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Reviews

In April 2002, Special Forces Team 2085 of the Virginia National Guard were "ripped from their lives" and deployed to Afghanistan to aid in the hunt for the remnants of al Qaeda and their Taliban allies. Over the course of their six-month tour, they mounted 45 missions, captured three high-value targets and destroyed 79,000 pounds of weapons and ammunition. This volume by team members "Red" and "Captain," however, focuses more on the story of their disillusionment than on their military successes. Frustrated that Special Forces troops "were being demoralized and squandered" by career-minded officers, they conclude that "our army is a wasteful, immobile, risk-averse outfit, whose purpose is simply to 'do time.'" This, of course, is the same army that routed the Taliban government in one month and toppled Saddam Hussein in 21 days. The account is rambling, often indecipherable and occasionally gratuitous-as when one of the authors refers to 9/11: "I remember the day well." Don't we all? Sometimes, it pays to remain anonymous. Other than the fact that it airs "a lot of dirty laundry," there's not much to recommend this book.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Voyageur Pr
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076032252X
• ISBN 13: 9780760322529
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 255
• Editor: Mayer Bob