Book Review- Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commanders Account of the hunt for the world's most wanted man by Dalton Fury

This is another book which has been out for a while but is relevant for review because of the recent death of bin Laden.  Like Lone Survivor, this is an eye witness account of events in Afghanistan from the perspective of a member of the Special Forces, this time Delta Force.  It is about the initial hunt for bin Laden and the battle of Tora Bora, nearly a decade ago in the wake of 9/11.  I read this while bin Laden was still alive and now that he is dead there is a happier ending to the story, though it exists outside of the book.  Apparently this book is being made into a movie soon.  It will be interesting to see the film now that bin Laden is dead, since he was still alive when the book was written.

Again, like Lone Survivor this book is insightful concerning Special Forces and this time it is from an officer’s point of view.  You get a real sense of camaraderie between he and his men and the patriotism that existed in the US military immediately following 9/11.  The main idea I captured from this book is that US military with the help of Afghan freedom fighters came very close to killing Bin Laden during this battle, but due to politics, the fog of war and other factors he slipped through their fingers for almost the entire next decade until his recent death in Pakistan.  

Delta Force is one of the most mysterious military units in the world, but this book is insightful about it without being transparent.   It is also insightful about the roots of the war in Afghanistan which has since become a complicated, drawn-out conflict with no real end in sight.  In December 2001, there was no Iraq war, no large scale military buildup or surge in Afghanistan, but there was the fresh memory of the twin towers and a small elite force with boots on the ground in the country that was harboring the perpetrator of the crimes of 9/11 with their sites zeroed in on his hiding place.  It is incredible to read about these events with the knowledge of what came after.  I can’t help but wonder if things had turned out differently in Tora Bora if the past decade of US military action would have been very different as well.  We will never know.  We do know however that the story in Kill Bin Laden has finally found it’s real climax in 2011.    

Buy Kill Bin Laden at Amazon.com:

Kill Bin Laden: A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man