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Summary: Brilliant work of pure journalism
Review: Although given overwhelmingly favorable reviews, some note that the narrative lacks the sense of "black irony" present in many other war stories. I disagree. This book hides its subtlety and nuance behind chillingly stoic prose. By freeing himself from the somewhat egotistical need to analyze the battle from a modern, cynical foreign policy perspective, Bowden allows the events to speak for themselves. Black irony abounds, but it is never underlined. Bowden allows the reader to place blame; understanding, I think, that the current gap in modern journalism isn't a lack of sage analysis, but a lack of unbiased, unflinching reportage. The fact that Bowden was the first and only reporter to give serious coverage to this event bears out this unfortunate fact.
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Summary: Black Hawk Down Delivers a Glimpse of Modern Urban Warfare
Review: Black Hawk Down delivers the look and feel of the intensity of modern combat in an urban environment. Through hundreds of interviews from both the Somali and U.S. soldier perspectives, Mark Bowden recreates the action as it happened in Mogadishu. Experience the thoughts and fears of the pilots, the Rangers on the ground, the Delta Force commandos inside the target building, the Somalis roaming the alleys to get a taste of battle. Move down the streets and back alleys with a squad trying desperately to secure a fallen comrade. Drive through the maze of avenues in an armored Humvee. Feel the panic of soldiers trapped in a gauntlet of chaos trying to support each other from becoming overwhelmed by rioting crowds of Somalis. Fly over the buildings with pilots that possess nerves of steel, skillfully maneuvering their aircraft past anti-tank rockets and sniper fire. Reading this book provides the same vicarious experience that the pages of We Were Soldiers Once and Young lay bare for the Vietnam conflict. Read the following excerpt and judge for yourself."Mo'alim's group first encountered Rangers at an intersection in a Humvee just south of the hotel on Hawlwadig Road. As they crept up and fired on the Americans, a helicopter appeared and opened fire, killing the eldest of Mo'alim's squad, a portly middle-aged man they called "Alcohol." Mo'alim dragged Alcohol's limp body off the street, and his squad regrouped a block further south, behind the Bar Bakin Hotel. It was there they saw the first helicopter go down. The men cheered wildly. They continued moving and shooting, staying about two blocks away from the Rangers. They were still south of the target building when one of Mo'alim's group knelt in the road, took aim at another Black Hawk, and fired. The grenade hit the rear rotor and big chunks flew off in the explosion. And then, for an instant, nothing happened....... Now everyone around him was racing south. He ran with them, back through his own neighborhood of Hawlwadigli, a goateed veteran soldier waving his weapon and shouting, "Turn back! Stop! There are still men inside who can shoot!" Some listened to him and fell behind Mo'alim and his men. Others ran on ahead. Ali Hussein, who managed a pharmacy near where the helicopter crashed, saw many of his neighbors grab guns and run toward it. He caught hold of the arm of his friend Ali Mohamed Cawale, who owned the Black Sea restaurant. Cawale had a rifle. Hussein grabbed him by both shoulders. "It's dangerous. Don't go!" he shouted at him. But the smell of blood was in the air. Cawale wrestled away from Hussein and joined the running crowd." As you can tell from the above passage, Bowden provides a balanced account of the conflict from both sides. Thus, this book is useful for getting into the minds of the Somalis to understand a third world view of the impact of U.S intervention, in addition to feeling the thoughts and emotions of soldiers engaged in a struggle for survival. As a result, many readers can benefit from perusing the pages of Black Hawk Down. Young soldiers can learn about the intensity of a first battle. Junior leaders can learn about leadership under the most extreme conditions. Senior policy makers gain an insight into the will and desire of another people that may not welcome American influence into their country. War story buffs just get the entertainment value of reading a gripping account of modern urban warfare. Bowden's extensive research and interviewing creates the multi-faceted benefits of this volume. Read it to further your own professional development. Understand the enemy; understand your soldiers; learn about the cultures in elite units like the Rangers and Delta Force. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: SUPER-SIX FOUR GOING DOWN
Review: This is one of the best books that I have ever read. This book shows that war is not just glory. It showes the bound between men in combat. I loved this book and it captured my imagination. I would recomend the book to anyone who is intersted in military history or who just wants a good book to sink thier teeth into!
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Summary: The Best Military Book I've Ever Read
Review: I only had a superficial knowledge of U.S. involvement until I read this book. To say it was an eye-opening experience is an understatement. Bowden does an amazing job of showing the horror of modern urban warfare without demonizing the Somalis and showing the American soldiers as the men they truly are. Heroes. It is sad to say that good intentions never solve s situation totally, but the gripping accounts that Bowden makes in this book truly caught me. Buy this book, buy it now, and give yourself an afternoon to sit down and read. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: Readable but not objective
Review: The book is about an incident in the peacekeeping mission of the US forces in Somalia. In broad outline a number of elite soldiers a ranger force attempted to kidnap some Somali civilians.... From reading this book one gets the impression that the whole exercise was deeply flawed. The rangers did not seem to be able to connect with the local population at all dismissing them as "Skinnies". The Rangers described a small gauge German automatic pistol not as a pistol, but as a "Skinnie Popper". The story the Rangers tell is of an adventure in which the enemy is hardly human more like aliens in a science fiction movie. This is despite the fact that the US had been in Somalia for some 10 months. One wonders what was meant to be achieved by the kidnap of individual leaders. The reality seemed to have been that Somalia had fragmented and that there was no defined single opposition to the peacekeepers, rather there was a myriad of factions. One would have thought that if the Rangers had succeeded in their kidnap it would not have ended the conflict as another rebel group would have sprung up. One also wonders about the military logic of landing people from helicopters in urban areas remote from support when the local population were equipped with hand held rocket launchers. This sort of incident was surely the sort of thing that was likely to happen. The author interviewed some of the Somali's including a member of Adid's faction and another who he describes as a mercenary. The first describes how previous raids by the Americans had not been well directed and led to civilian deaths. This made it easy for Adid to demonize the Americans and to make resistance to them popular. The second Somali describes his own role but it is not clear if the resistance was organized or largely spontaneous. Most of the book however relates to the American side of things. Occasionally the author has his Somali informants speak not as normal people speak but has them doing sons of the desert imitations. He has his informants saying things like "they dropped from the great birds in the sky" rather than using normal expressions. Other language by the Rangers is reasonably derogatory of the Somali's speaking of firing at "swarms of excited skinnies". This incident in fact would objectively be seen as a big victory for General Adid . Against well led highly trained troops a number of poorly armed civilians have defeated a major power and forced them off the African continent. This view of things the author fails to pick up on till the very end of his book. One would be interested to see how Aidid was able to mobilize support when the country was collapsing but this the author does not explore. One also wonders at what the leaders of the Rangers were trying to do and if they thought through their strategy. The impression the book gives is that the Rangers and their leaders lived in a boys own type adventure and had little comprehension of the complexity of the real world.Despite that they are clearly disciplined and brave men. It seems that their leaders were poorly equipped to undertake such a mission and the one person who comes out of the story with some positives is President Clinton who realizes when to cut his losses and get out. Despite all this the book is gripping and easy to read.
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Summary: Tanner's Review
Review: Black Hawk Down is a great story of modern war. The book gave me a greater understanding of what combat is like. It was great how it all flowed together even though it did not go in order. It was intresting to read about how the operation went and what men were doing and thinking. I highly recomend this book if you want to get a greater under standing of war and its affects on people.
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Summary: must-read!
Review: gripping and heart-stopping suspense. i couldn't put it down. this is one hell of a war story. brilliantly written with the absolute realism. highly recommanded. can't wait for the movie.
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Summary: Absolutely Gripping
Review: I don't usually read documentaries, but picked this book up on a friend's recommendation. And it was worth it. The author reconstructs, from words of U.S. soldiers, those opposing the U.S. soldiers, and transcripts, the horrific mission which went literally to hell. In the honest telling of a story in which most of us would shiver to imagine ourselves, I read about the fears, the deaths, the comeraderie, and courage of the soldiers who found themselves stranded and at the center of a unbelievable gunfight. It is not a book that exhalts the United States, or even warfare. It is not a book that aims to glorify the bloody, cruel, and inhumane act of war. It depicts the soldiers in fear, being shot at, crying and screaming, and struggling just to stay alive. It depicts clashes among the ranks, and pride getting in the way of the mission. Yet, in the end, it is the luck and pluck of these ordinary men giving their lives for their country which remain with you, regardless of what the Governments and Military intended or forced upon them. It is no wonder, that once the book came out, it has become a required reading in the military itself. Even though it brings out its own dirty laundry, you cannot help but to bow your head in respect for their courage and service. dulce et decorum est pro patria mori I don't support military actions, I don't support warfare (though I admit it seems to be in human nature), I don't support the U.S. "intervention", I don't support massacres of people in the name of security - But I respect these men, and what they did. The author wrote the book saying the men "deserve to be remembered" and it does a great job.
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Summary: To a reader in Detroit
Review: Hmm. Never been in the military huh. I am an ex-Ranger that read what you had to say and thought you needed a little advice. You talk as though you think the Rangers and the Delta force just make up their own missions and carry them out at their own discretion. These men may be the best but that means nothing when their commander in chief and polititians posing as Generals are making the faulty decisions behind the use of these elite troops. Do you really think these units would have repeated these tactical missions over and over if it was up to them? Wake up you fool! The term proud is used when these men are thrust into this situation and how they handled the horror that insued once those decisions were made by polititians who really had no place to make them in the first place. Why the hell do you think military service is a factor in Presidential elections? A correct statement from you might have been...America has nothing to be proud of when it comes to politics in Somolia. Rangers and Delta teams are not political creatures. Unfortunatley they are often chess pieces in a game of poker. Remember that.
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Summary: The best book in a while
Review: I read this book over memorial day weekend, so perhaps that holiday influenced my view of the novel. However, having only heard media reports of U.S. engagement in Somalia, this book was not only an eye-opener, but a truly heroic story of men at war. The simple fact that these men perservered through the situtation they were stuck in is a testament to their bravery and commitment. There is no way for me to correctly describe the skill Mr. Bowden uses to write this book, to bring all the charachters to life and to make the reader feel like he/she is on the streets of Mogadishu with the soldiers. If you want to lose yourself in a book for a good long time, buy this. Buy it now.
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