Try Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor if you want to read more about Operation Anaconda.Originally Posted by Rapid Butterfly
Try Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor if you want to read more about Operation Anaconda.
"When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man."
An old book for Foamers that I picked up at a yard sale:
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
I just finished this and really enjoyed it. Basically battalion level and up but with interesting vignettes and technical / doctrinal info about the TDs.
^^^Going off on a tangent, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote at least two military history books focused on black Americans' role in the military, one of which was about the 761st TD Bn. (The other I've read was about the 10th Cav Reg.). He graduated from UCLA with a degree in history, and apparently was one of those jocks who actually went to class and studied.
I can still remember his Power Memorial High days back in NYC when he was still known as Lew Alcindor. It was LeBron way before LeBron.
Too bad he never made anything of himself.
There's nothing civil about this war.
I finished "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" and will admit I picked it up mostly because the title was funny. I'd read some excerpts and knew what to expect, but again...mostly because of the title. It's a fun read and there's some interesting tidbits in there, but what you get out of it is mostly going to be based on where you're at now. It would have done me a lot more good to have had the info contained in the book some twenty years ago before I'd figured out a lot of this stuff the hard/stupid way. Still worth the read, though, and there were some fresh ways (to me) at looking at concepts that I agreed with but hadn't considered from the angles presented.
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I finished this today.
I think if I’d read this when I first started studying Vietnam decades ago, I’d have a better impression of it. I want to give the author credit for doing first what later books like Matterhorn, or Sympathy with the Devil, have done far better, and far less self consciously. As it is, I think it’s a completist’s read, not an essential one on this war.
Last edited by Medusa; 11-24-2019 at 04:56 PM.
I’ve read Fields of Fire several times. It’s a great book. I also like A Sense of Honor which is set in the Naval Academy in 1967-68. From what I understand this is based on Webb’s time at the Academy. If you liked Fields of Fire I think you’d like this Butterfly.
Just a dog chauffeur that used to hold the dumb end of the leash.
I read "The Looming Tower" since it came up in another thread awhile back. It's a decent book and provides a bird's eye view of the lengthy run up to 9/11. There's basically nothing on the hijackers themselves, but the decades of factors and personalities that put them in motion is the focus of the book. I was familiar with most of the information already, although some of the Egyptian history was new to me. The Saudi and Afghani portions didn't have any new revelations to me but it'd be an excellent place for a beginning.
The book also reminds me of what a complete fuck up Bill Clinton was and how badly he damaged this country. His blowjob at working distracting him from doing his job (along with the symbolism that had on the world stage), his cuts to the necessary defense apparatus of this nation, and his complete fucking ineptitude were instrumental in the success of terrorism under his watch. There's few people I legitimately hate in this world, and Bill is #1. I honestly can't think of a sole who's damaged this country more in my lifetime. If you'd like a reminder of what a fuck up he was, this is the book for you. Not that I'm bitter or anything. But fuck him.
The CIA is certainly made to look inept as well, and this has been a common theme I've encountered in other places. The FBI is depicted as being a significantly more effective institution. The author does give passing mention to the CIA being cut back to the point it's capacity for Human Intelligence was negligible in much of the world and that they were operating under some odd rules (Clinton again...) and their interpretation of those rules. I'm not in a position to know if the CIA had successes that aren't public because they are still classified or if they really were the hindrance they are portrayed as in this book and others.
Definitely a more specialized look, but https://www.amazon.com/Question-Tort.../dp/0805082484 is also a good comparison between the "FBI way" and the "CIA way", focusing on interrogation. CIA interrogation isn't mentioned in The Looming Tower, but the effectiveness of the FBI method is.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
^^^^Read it, (Looming Tower), thought much of it was good though some of it bogged down. I'll leave my opinions of various three letter agencies at the door based upon prior personal experience.
There's nothing civil about this war.
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