Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

"I tried to get a hold of myself. But again in my mind I heard that terrible, terrible scream, the same one that awakens me, bullying its way into my solitary dreams, night after night, the confirmation of guilt. The endless guilt of the survivor. `Help me, Marcus! Please help me!' It was a desperate appeal in the mountains of a foreign land. It was a scream cried out in the echoing high canyons of one of the loneliest places on earth. It was the nearly unrecognizable cry of a mortally wounded creature. And it was a plea I could not answer. I can't forget it. Because it was made by one of the finest people I ever met, a man who happened to be my best friend."In 2005, Marcus Luttrell was part of a four-man mission in the mountains of Afghanistan. A member of the elite Navy SEALs, he was tasked with killing a Taliban leader who had close ties with Osama bin Laden. This small team was hidden outside a village, surveying the area and looking for their target, when a small group of goat herders stumbled upon them. The soldiers quickly detained the two men and the teenage boy and debated what they should do. The most obvious solution and the one that would be most conducive to their mission would be to immediately execute their prisoners. But when the four soldiers put it to a vote, it was determined that they should let these people go. Morality won over personal preservation. But was it morality or fear? "Was I afraid of these guys? No. Was I afraid of their possible buddies in 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 murderers and rapists." The former prisoners quickly and inevitably reported to the Taliban leaders and the SEALs were soon fighting for their lives. Before long three of the men were dead and the fourth, Luttrell, was running for his life (though not before they killed somewhere around 100 enemy soldiers. Don't mess with the SEALs!). It was a terrible slaughter, made worse when a helicopter carrying a rescue force was shot down, killing sixteen more Americans.Lone Survivor tells the story of this mission through the eyes of Littrell, the only man who lived to tell the tale. The book was released to great acclaim and has become a fixture on the bestseller lists. While the book is in many ways a typical war story (a description of SEAL training camp, tales of combat, lots and lots of bad language and tales of remarkable heroism) it goes beyond the story to share at least a couple of very important statements about warfare today. And this is, I think, where the reader stands to benefit most.One of this book's most important statements is that the current rules of engagement soldiers are required to adhere to are irrational and are the product of politicians who are far from the action. "Any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing's fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed." American soldiers are being forced to fight in situations where they are almost guaranteed to take casualties because of restrictives rules of engagement. These rules may make sense to politicians safely ensconced in their Washington offices, but they are utterly unfair and unsafe on the battlefield. Luttrell states that these rules are costing lives and that the United States should not be willing to fight wars that she cannot fight to win.The other important statement is about the role of the media in modern warfare. Luttrell's disgust for the media knows no bounds. "It's been an insidious progression, the criticisms of the U.S. Armed Forces from politicians and from the liberal media, which knows nothing of combat, nothing of our training, and nothing of the mortal dangers we face out there on the front line." "I promise you, every insurgent, freedom fighter, and stray gunman in Iraq who we arrested knew the ropes, knew that the way out was to announce that he had been tortured by the Americans, ill treated, or prevented from reading the Koran or eating his breakfast or watching the television. They all knew al-Jazeera, the Arab broadcasters, would pick it up, and it would be relayed to the U.S.A., where the liberal media would joyfully accuse all of us of being murderers or barbarians or something. Those terrorist organizations laugh at the U.S. media, and they know exactly how to use the system against us." Those of us who have watched recent wars from afar can attest that this is exactly the case. The media, and particularly the liberal media, seems to side with the bad guys. Soldiers are fighting brutal warfare, all the wonder more terrified of their own nation's press than the guys shooting at them. They hardly know who the real enemy is.Lone Survivor is an enjoyable book, typical in many of its facets, but atypical in its deeper message. It is a book Americans would do well to read and to consider.

Excellent book.

I hope to one day meet Marcus. What an amazing man and story. It would be an honor to just have one conversation with him.

Americans "should" read this book, and I confess making a moral judgement of my fellow citizens -- just as the author does in his autobiographical account from inside the minds of America's warrior elite. Marcus Lutrell's perspective is that our warriors are fighting for America, but not for America's "liberal media," which Lutrell feels too quickly judge warriors for necessary acts of war. Our warriors are given rules of engagement that often prevent their self defense from an enemy not bound by those same rules. Here we go again, sending our best to fight and die for us and then not supporting them. The book helps us see how our warriors can feel that way, again, just as they did when returning home from Vietnam. We Americans said we would not let it happen again, but apparently we have. Afghanistan is just as much a quagmire of moral judgement as was Vietnam.But what if we only judge the book for its merits as writing, rather than its probe into morality? I thought it bogged down in the miserable sands of SEAL training. But Lutrell's tedious review of Hell Week misery turns out to set the stage for the misery of intense combat where four of our best warriors fight and fall their way down 4,000 feet of a steep rocky mountainside. We see that Hell Week on a Pacific beach gives our guys the required mental toughness, but does not provide the surefooted agility of a Taliban enemy grown up herding goats between cliffs and couliors. SEALs are more at home under the water than on a mountain. Our heroes load themselves down like pack mules, but then encounter a light stealthy enemy who uses fellow Taliban for their own pack mules so they aren't as encumbered by arms and munitions. Luttrell's slog in the cold wet sands of California reveals more than is first apparent to readers stuck in Luttrell's blow-by-blow account of SEAL training.Lutrell's detailed account of family and friends painful waiting for news back on his family's Texas ranch also seems to bog down the story at times. But stay there for a few minutes and try to remember that kind of support for the family of those missing in action in Vietnam. Maybe we did learn something from Vietnam.There's a high cost for America's determination to hold the moral high ground in times of war. War is not moral, so perhaps our expectations are too high. In Lone Survivor we see the pain of those we put in harm's way and ask them to kill for us while we attempt to hold the moral high ground of public opinion that is fed by the liberal media. We ask them to do the impossible and they come close.We Americans impose this expectation of holding the moral high ground, so we must love our warriors and forgive occasional imperfections when they are in our service. And if we want the moral high ground we are also forced to embrace our liberal media, and also forgive their occasional errors. It is only in this state of dynamic tension between the warrior and the media that it's even possible for us to aspire to some kind of moral high ground.Read our warrior's book. Know his heart and mind. Look through his eyes into the eyes of Taliban and understand their hate for us. We are hiking a long treacherous mountain trail. Those of us feeling safe in America are part of the problem and part of the solution. Marcus Lutrell tells us there are few safe places to rest on this journey through combat to moral high ground.

Love this book. I bought it for my son and then I started reading it. Well worth the money

The delivery in time. Great book to read in your break.

Good quality and price

Buen libro y rapida entrega

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