Posted on 10/15/2007 8:21:06 PM PDT by rlmorel
I just finished listening to the Audiobook of "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell. It is one of the most amazing stories about survival I have ever read, but in my opinion, what is even more compelling about the book are the trials of honor and morality.
This is a story that America should be aware of, and very few people are, even though the leader of this team LT Murphy was recently awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions, and the other three members of the team were awarded the Navy Cross, two posthumously.
This is an awful moral conflict these men found themselves in...nearly biblical in nature. From a misson perspective, they had every right to kill two Afghan goatherders who stumbled across them while they were surveilling a village containing a high value target. But they found they could not kill the two in cold blood (one a 14 year old boy) not only for moral reasons, but for tactical reasons.
1.) If they killed them, they could not hide the bodies, because there was no way to bury them (they did not have entrenching tools, and the terrain was too rocky anyway)
2.) When the two goatherders did not show back up in the village, the people would definitely have gone out looking for them and found them.
3.) They could do nothing about the large herd of goats. So even if they had killed the pair, it would not likely have gained them much since they couldn’t dispose of the herd of goats which would have led the Taliban right to the guys who were in an extremely exposed and indefensible area.
Personally, the surviving SEAL who wrote the book is berating himself visciously and vigorously for not killing the two in cold blood, but...I think he is too hard on himself. It was simply a bad situation, a no-win situation. And killing two unarmed people, one a child in cold blood to save your own skin would have had a price of its own as he seems well enough aware of.. It is, however very disturbing and sad to hear this poor guy just tear his decision to pieces and berate himself for making it. It literally broke my heart to hear the pain in his angry words he directs at himself.
There is also the story of the Afghan village that took him in and stood up the the Taliban, saving his life. THIS just fills you with respect for the Afghans who are standing up to the Taliban and other Islamofascists.
Apparently, under Afghan custom there is a process called "lokay" (phonetic) where if someone takes another under protection, that person cannot be harmed. And the Taliban needed the cooperation of these Pashtun villages, so they could not afford to alienate the other villages and Pashtuns by storming in and killing the semi-incapacitated SEAL. They came in and slapped him around and such, but could not take him out and kill him, as they most surely wanted to do.
The whole village was looking out for him. The kids loved him, and one day after the kids had gone out looking for parachuted items, the Taliban fighters had beat up all the kids, so their faces were marked and bruised. When they came back, they didn't want to let on to him what had happened, but he figured it out. The kids stood up to them as well in defense of this guy and had been beaten.
One more interesting thing: The honor and respect this author (and by his account, nearly every person in Special Forces he served with) has for George W. Bush. I know he has plenty of shortcomings in various areas, but as a Commander in Chief, this book is an illustration of the positive attitudes these elite military men have for President Bush. Another thing you just do not see reported.
It is my opinion that someday this will will be immortalized on film for all of us to appreciate, in the fashion of "Band of Brothers". I predict it will be done, and will do justice to the memory of those men, and to the Afghan villagers who risked their lives to save the life of just one of these men, Marcus Luttrell.
Note: I do not think this movie will end up made by one of those shallow Hollywood liberal pieces of crap...it will be a labor of love by someone, and will be one of the best movies ever made. Liberals won't touch it, especially with the utter contempt these men apparently had for the Liberals, and the apparent aforementioned respect and admiration they have for George W. Bush.
What is your opinion on regular books and audio books? Is it a long book? I read kinda slow so I figure listening to that would make me go at a quicker pace.
The audiobook is VERY well done...and it is a pretty short book, just over five hours. I listen to them going to and from work, about an hour each way.
Took me just two days...VERY well done.
BTW...if you have not done audiobooks, this one is short. I have a few that are 15 hours or more...:)
I'll never drink from a plastic Pepsi bottle.
No kidding. As messed up as he was, the smell of that bottle really did offend him mightily!
Sounds cool, I’ll try to find the audio book of it then.
It’s a definate MUST read.
That’s it. I’m getting it. I have a credit at audible.com and I’m getting this one.
Thanks for the little push!
Sad that this is not a well known story, either.
Sure it popped up, but immediate disappeared under another Britney Spears story (or whatever)
Well worth it.
Generally, I have to admit Audible.com is a bit of a liberal thing, you can tell by the books they include right off the bat. They have Al Franken’s, Bill Clinton’s book and Hillary’s book immediately, but don’t get Ann Coulter’s or Robert Patterson’s books out there until months later.
But they do have a lot of books for conservatives, if you know what you are looking for.
I’ve only read the first chapter so far. Look forward to reading the rest of it.
Ping for knowlege!
I saw Ann Coulter's audiobook yesterday at Barnes & Noble when I bought the Clarence Thomas book.
Our heroes in Afghanistan have become near invisible thanks to the mass media’s purposeful focus on Iraq (where “America’s mistake” beckons their traitorous interests) rather than the country the terrorists use as a base. I hope this book gets the proper publicizing it deserves.
I am going to talk this book up to everyone I know. It is such a compelling book.
Bought the Hardbound Version.
Read it, Loved it.
This book is making the rounds of my Family and Friends.
wow I will go pick this up!!
Thanks for the post about it.
Absolutely...talk this up, it is a story that must be told! (Of course, if you agree after reading it...)
High five back to you. Great to see folks like yourself supporting the troops beyond slapping a generic magnet on their vehicle.
A friend dropped this book off a week ago.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book. When you get to the insertion, a simple short read of a few pages will floor you each sitting. I read through tears of respect about this whole SEAL teams courage. I won’t give it away except to say the book covers many angles; puts YOU in the thick of it, and it will be made clear to you why this author survived, and he’ll tell you why he became: the “Lone Survivor”. I’d calculate the odds of this man surviving ‘that day’ at over 24Mil to 1.
A salute to SEAL TEAM 10! Mikey, Marcus, Axe, and Danny heroes all.
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