Books & more: No easy day

The hype beforehand was enormous. Someone who was there at Neptune Spear, the operation in which Osama Bin Laden was killed, writes a book. "Opsec" was the buzzword. And how can he... The excitement paid off and the book quickly displaced the soft porn perennial bestseller "Shades of Grey" from the bestseller list. There is no sex in it - and otherwise you learn little new. Only the murky end of Osama - sometimes he fought, sometimes he hid behind his girls - is now clear: Osama peeked out the door as the Pointman of the team came up the stairs and shot him. The infiltrating group then played it safe, adding a few chest shots to the dead body. The weapons in Osama's room were definitely unloaded. Otherwise, the sequence matches what was already known (we reported). - Still, it's a good book. "Owen" describes his path to the SEALS and how he was recruited by DEVGRU through the Green Team, the internal recruitment unit. As mentioned, there are no secrets, but SEAL Team VI gets a face through descriptions of the operational mentality, the moral of the Silent Professionals, the performance mindset, the humor. Missions in Afghanistan are also presented, and the descriptions match those from the book about Adam Lee Brown.

Owen does mention different approaches when DEVGRU conducts Direct Action missions in Afghanistan: Initially, targets were directly flown to, rappelled down, and attacked from above. Later, they landed out of earshot, marched in, and attacked by taking advantage of the element of surprise. Final state: Circle the buildings, use loudspeakers to demand surrender. To the frustration of the elite soldiers, because those not found with a weapon cannot be fought. The Taliban know this as well, so after an arrest, they are back in freedom and in business weeks later. But political consideration dictates so...

Owen explicitly states that it was the men and women of the CIA and the men of DEVGRU who got Osama - even though they know that this secures Obama's reelection. Devgrus seem to be more Republicans, the current President does not come out well in the book. Why is Owen talking? He believes that the political level has already "leaked" the whole story. He wants to tell it from the perspective of the soldiers who were there themselves. The perspective is very direct: Owen moved directly behind the Pointman who shot Osama, was in the room with the body of the terrorist leader. (For the details of Neptune's Spear: see the interview with "Owen" from CBS 60 Minutes below.)

Overall, an exciting book, very well written by co-author Kevin Maurer. Unexcited, informative, easy to read - but also hyped and overrated. Easy reading with large letters, others make books half as thick with so little text.

“No Easy Day: The Only First-hand Account of the Navy Seal Mission that Killed Osama bin Laden“ by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer, Penguin Books, 2012, 300 pages. The book is available in bookstores or on Amazon for Euro 16.95. The German edition “Mission erfüllt: Navy Seals im Einsatz: Wie wir Osama bin Laden aufspürten und zur Strecke brachten“ will be released soon.