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Title: Black Hawk Down
ISBN: 0743509919
Author:
Mark Bowden
Publicate Date: 2002-01-01
Publish: 2002-01-01
List Price: $30.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Audio CD
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $9.17
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.49
Amazon Merchant Price: $30.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Bowden Demonstrates Masterful Writing
Bowden has written a masterful account of the Black Hawk Down tragedy which became a famous Tony Scott movie. The scene is grim: Mogadishu under the warlords with an inept, incompetent United Nations force presuming that it will separate the warring factions and restore peace. The United States commits its troops to snatch a warlord and his cronies to cripple the terrorists gripping this impoverished nation and its capital. Political consideration such as the prohibition of armor takes precedence over protecting the troops. The October 1993 incident raises a lot of questions about elite units, vicious house to house fighting, the support that is possible or necessary to engage such terrorist forces, etc., In addition, there were reports that Osama bin Laden had urged (or some say even sent his underlings) to attack the American troops. The subsequent withdrawal of the troops by Clinton had some analysts saying that this act emboldened bin Laden in subsequent years. With powerful descriptions about the elite fighting units predicament under a mission gone awry, this book will at least acquaint the reader with horrible consequences of modern warfare.
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2: Horrifically good book
Great read, action packed. Some parts make you want to cringe, others make you want to cry. I will say that it can get a little gruesome at times and the violence does get to be numbing after a while.
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3: Amazing, Simply Amazing
This is one of the best books I've read. The reader gets a street level view of what really happened in Mogadishu. The media made this incident look like an embarrassment to the United States Military when one can clearly see from this book that they did an exceptional job on an epic scale. The author is incredible in his writing, descriptions, and familiarizing the reader with the soldiers involved in the action.
The only negative I can see is that a reader with no military background may get muddled down with the military acronyms, terminology, and ranking structure.
Aside from that you cannot go wrong with this book and I can see this book being used in a syllabus for a College Course down the road, if it isn't already.
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4: Not Too Late to Read This Important Work
Like far too many other Americans, I failed to pay enough attention to the nation's involvement in Somalia. In fact, it wasn't until my wife and I stumbled into a cable broadcast of the film adaptation of "Black Hawk Down" that it really grabbed my attention. Having missed the beginning of the film, we both guessed wrong at where it even was taking place, and in fact initially mistook it for fiction.
Fittingly, Mark Bowden reveals that some of the Rangers engaged in the battle of Mogadishu had trouble accepting the reality of the horrendous situation they found themselves in, at times laughing at the absurdity of the carnage and the increasing liklihood that they would not survive a firefight in the Third World against starving people in sandals. Bowden did a masterful job of capturing those emotions, as well as chronicling all that took place in real time. In this regard, I respectfully disagree with reviewers who have criticized the pace of the book -- which I feel supported the fact that every aspect of the battle took much too long and heightened the peril.
Bowden deserves much credit for having the courage to visit Somalia for research, especially with the knowledge that four Western journalists had been murdered in Mogadishu a few years earlier. He also deserves our thanks for detailing the determination of Somalis who sacrificed themselves to achieve an objective that had become extremely important to them. I can't think of another book that does as good a job of respecting both sides and presenting an even balance of perspectives.
"Black Hawk Down" is also important because it explains how the beating the US took in Mogadishu affected foreign policy for years to come -- including decisions to avoid involvement in other nations such as Rwanda, where human rights were being trounced. I strongly encourage anyone, especially those who, like me, more or less blew off this episode of American History, to buy or borrow this book and devour it. My only caution is that the graphic descriptions of injuries are not for the faint of heart.
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5: Well done
Exciting, fast paced narrative. Reads well. A wee bit disorganized, but not to avoid.
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