A Delta Force Commander's Account of the Hunt for the World's Most Wanted Man

Of all the nonfiction books I have read about the last ten years of our history and why we are were we are, this has to be one of the very best. This book is very well written and is an absoulte page turner. I do wish he would write another.

Good detail about Delta Force but totally lacking in the drama of the relationship with higher authority which must have existed. Rumor has it that at critical go/nogo moment Washington blinked. Did this happen?

Although an interesting read, it was not what I thought it was. Upon further research, I now understand that it was a navy seal that killed Bil Laden, not a Delta Force soldier, but that is why I was getting the book--to learn more. I didn't know there were two books.

Fascinating and fast-moving account of the Tora Bora 'operation' in December 2001 from a Delta officer. Nothing especially fancy here in terms of writing, but a solid retelling of the failed attempt to snuff UBL before he reached the safety of Pakistan, our dear ally in the 'war on terror'. The thought that ISI did not know he was there the whole time is really laughable. The internal politics of the Afghans and their warlord culture are front and center in this book and he is very honest in his appraisal of their fighting worth. A mixed bag, to be sure. The Delta operators are impressive and best of all is to read a war book without a single American killed in action. Sadly that will not (and has not) always been the case, but it really points to the value of the Special Forces concept of war in many situations.

really, really ad. Crap writing. After 60 pages of "me tough soldier workin' with the boys," I ditched it. I'll recycle the paper. No one else should have to waste time on it. Oh, and they did not get Bin Laden.

The entire store is about SF soldiers running up and down a mountain using night-vision gear. That is seriosly the extent of this book which was written for a 5th grade reading level. Skip it. Find Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior instead if you're looking for insights into how SF units actually operate.

This is a very encompassing book detailing the first efforts to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. But as the reader will find out, in those early days of the conflict, George Bush attempted to work with the tribal leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to build a solid foreign policy and provide the elders of the tribes, a place of importance in the eyes of their people and the world.
Unfortunately, his efforts turned into a political and military debacle that allowed "Enemy #1" of the world, to continue operations of terror and destruction for another twelve years. Is Bush at fault? Perhaps. Was it important for America to gain a presence in this tumultuous area? At the time, yes. In hindsight, it's easy to assign blame to our leaders, but when it comes down to our troops risking their lives for the country and the worlds benefit, he should have rolled the dice and killed him when the chance first appeared.
The brilliance of the this work is how the reader is placed in the mountains of Tora Bora and following Bin Laden's movements. Mr. Fury does an excellent job in recreating what he and his troops endured as they hunted this monster. Imagine being in the operations room and hearing Bin Laden bid his troops farewell as our Special Forces move in for the kill. You can feel his resignation over the air waves. You will tense up as the troops move in for the final kill, and then feel their pain and let down knowing their prey had escaped through the back door.
Well done Mr. Fury

Very very interesting...I was looking for a book about Tora Bora for a long time, and I finally found this book...
The writer cross-references his facts with other authors which gives this book an air of legitimacy.
The facts presented once again emphasizes the dedication of the special forces, but also the frustration they feel so often when they are not allowed to utilize their training and have to comply with orders and plans made by people who either don't know the facts or don't like the facts for political reasons and therefore give instructions which are senseless and frustrating.
The "what-if" scenarios, had command known what they were doing, are numerous, and I think it will haunt the special forces guys who were there forever.
Great book, a must read for those who follow the GWOT...

What happened in December of 2001 in Tora Bora doesn't easily fit into a sound bite, so the reality has been vulnerable to spin and drama. Author Dalton Fury notes that not everyone is happy that he has committed this to print, but history undoubtedly will be.

Companies tout their modern, flattened organizational charts. Managers are told to "push decision making down" to its lowest level. The US military has not gotten the message.

Delta Company, incredibly trained and equipped, was put on the ground with orders to, essentially, follow local warlords. The warlords' troops, like they were punching a clock and like commuters everywhere went home at sundown. Here, their convoys streamed down a mountainous road. For three weeks Delta, cajoled, poked, and prodded its partners to hold the "real estate" won during the day.

The warlords wanted US money and face time on the international news. The warlords' troops were sympathetic to Bin Laden, listening to rails against the infidels while on duty. They could have been fighting over control of opium fields or just using the US to acquire cash and weapons for later battles with each other. Whatever their goals, their cause was not ours nor as deeply felt as ours. They may have betrayed us by "brokering" a "surrender" which was neither requested nor sought. Was it a delaying tactic that allowed Bin Laden to slip out the back door?

Delta, like the CIA operatives in Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq or the members of Pat Tillman's platoon in Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman was hampered by decisions made in places far from flying bullets.

Lost in the drama of Bin Laden's escape is that Delta, a very tiny force, with CIA and air power back up won the Battle of Tora Bora. The Russians spent 10 years trying to do the same and the US got it in less than a month.

The mission, though was not to get Tora Bora, but to get Bin Laden. Why did it fail? The first fault lays in not keeping the "real estate" at night, which resulted from the order to have the locals go first. The second is in not securing the Pakistani border. These major failures were not those of Delta. Will we ever know who is responsible? No one, to my knowledge, has ever been held accountable.

This is a quickly moving story. There is quite a bit of jargon, but the lay person can usually figure it out. It is a must read for anyone interested in the early 2000 Afghan operations and/or the War on Terror.

Having read many of the journalists reports on the action that took place in Tora Bora during November and December of 2001 this is the first account that I've read by someone with direct first hand knowledge of that fighting. What makes this account particularly valuable is that the author was the on the ground commander of the elite American and British units involved in the fighting. His perspective gives you probably the best overall picture and description of the events across the battlefield as well as what was going on behind the scenes. There aren't many books or written accounts of the operations involving Delta. So this is a rare look, post Operation Just Cause and the Acid Gambit operation (Kurt Muse rescue in Panama). Dalton Fury gives us a more recent look into Delta and their amazing abilities to take the fight to the enemy as well as his own story of Delta selection and ending with his retirement. I found the account of the hunt for the elusive Osama (Usama) bin Laden to be a fascinating story. Negotiating through the bureaucratic jigsaw puzzle of SOCOM and the Mujahideen warlords who's only real motivation seemed to be the solidifying of their local power and mattress banks accounts. The physical and mental stamina Delta and British SBS warriors have is mind boggling. Sherpa type mountain skills comes to mind what these men endured minus the high tech winter clothing and comforts. Humping hundred pound rucksacks in subfreezing conditions in the mountains wearing indigenous clothing and a thin blanket. I also found that the author's honesty and self criticism lent to the credibility of his account. This books is a must read for fans of the shadowy elite Army unit as well as those interested in military history and or battlefield accounts. It's honest, well written and presented.

Required reading for anyone looking to understand America's failure to kill bin Laden and take down al Qaeda soon after American military forces hit the ground in Afghanistan. The perspective is that of Delta Force commander "Dalton Fury" (pseudonym), whose men advanced against al Qaeda positions in the Tora Bora range alongside Afghan forces, coordinating American air strikes against al Qaeda positions until bin Laden was allowed to flee into Pakistan.

Fury's book supplants Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander as the authoritative account given that Jawbreaker had much more of its content redacted by the CIA than military intelligence does to Fury's book published a few years later. Fury's book is also superior since it was his men in the mountains with Fury close by providing what little logistical support they were afforded (one story shows that support was so scant he had officers carrying gear and supplies up the mountains on their back).

We continue to hear our political leaders and media pundits laud our military for its prowess while ignoring the elephant in the room, pun intended - the almost complete lack of diplomatic effort and political support for our military that allows us to succeed rather than fail in our military efforts under President Bush. This book is Exhibit C (see below recommendations). Fury and his team and the story of their capabilities and efforts in Afghanistan provides a great look at America's best doing things in the field no other military can do with the possible exception of some elite British forces.

Fury's exciting depiction of their adventure in Afghanistan makes for great reading and significant confidence in our capabilities if provided with a competent commander in chief and war tested generals, rather than a lazy president coupled to sycophantic generals like CENTCOM Commander Gen. Tommie Franks. On the other hand, Fury's book provides several examples of opportunities squandered due to decisions made above Fury's pay scale, some in the White House itself, that defy logic, like the lack of support for Fury's team by our ground military forces rather than Afghan forces whose capabilities are limited and loyalties are suspect.

So while Kill bin Laden is as great a boots-on-the-ground non-fiction thriller that I've ever read; it's coupled with the frustration shared by Fury that our ground force special operations capabilities were never allowed to be cut loose and engage with the enemy in a manner commiserate with our military capability.

For a more chronological review of American efforts on the ground in Afghanistan, I highly recommend first reading First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan. "First In" chronicles the first CIA commander and his team's insertion into Afghanistan after 9/11, weeks prior to any significant military insertions that sets the groundwork for Fury and his team's insertion with Afghan forces. It also validates the same frustrations that Fury encounters in terms of getting the support it required to be successful, not a matter of incapability, but instead political will.

First In and Kill bin Laden share two themes: A highly enjoyable and often stunning read about the functional excellence of the people who serve our country in unfriendly territory, and an inability by either commander to communicate the illogical decisions made by the Bush Administration who refused to completely commit to going after and taking down al Qaeda. This brings to mind a third great book that also shares these themes which is every bit as a good a read about our fight in Iraq, House to House: A Soldier's Memoir .

While books that focus on our political leaders or generals when reporting the history of America at war sell better, I believe it's imperative the informed reader consider war at its most elemental level. Without such a perspective, I would argue it's impossible to understand the cost/benefit of blood and treasure expended for any given war and whether our leaders respected the investment of blood made by those that serve our country in its direct engagement of the enemy. All three of these books provide that perspective and make for extremely enjoyable reading as well.

This must have been a frustrating work for the author to write. The mission to get Bin Laden was so haphazzardly arranged that one wonders whether the US government was actually serious about getting this guy. Dalton Fury and his team Delta Commandos come across as can-do guys capable of doing almost anything. The author writes in a jaunty sort of gung-ho fashion which nonetheless is engaging and not boastful.

In the early part of the book the author talks about his life and reasons for joining Delta and the difficult training process involved. One can only admire his determination to be apart of the lengnedary and secret group. Placed in a near impossible situation with his team in the Tora Bora Mountains Fury must try and work with tempermental Afghan tribesmen who have their own aggenda. The impression is that these fighters had no real interest in getting Bin Laden. General Ali wants merely to milk as much bribe money as possible out of the CIA. His fighters retreat each night after putting in a day of shame combat. Despite this Dalton Fury and his team come close to getting Bin Laden.

With massive US Air support and ultra hi-tech guilding equipment they proceed to call in pin-point strikes that completely rout Al-Queda. So much for the legendary fighting qualities of these terrorists. If Dalton had been backed by a battalion of Rangers instead of Ali and his crew there is little doubt that Bin Laden would have been cooked. Why the US government provided Dalton with such limited assistence remains a great mystery, and one of almost criminal negligence.

With a new incoming Democratic administration perhaps we can finally get some answers why this mission was so poorly supported. There seems to be some strange reasons why Bush and the Pentagon did not pursue this matter.

Despite incompetence from Washington, Dalton came close to succeeding. His team crippled the terrorists and probably wounded the cowardly Sheikh as well. Some day we shall hopefully get the answers to all this. In the mean time we should be grateful that we have guys like Dalton Fury and Dealta Team who are willing to put their lives on the line for extreme commando missions like this. These guys are the true unsung heros of the war on Terror.

Dalton Fury (a pseudonym for the mission commander and book author) himself characterized his mission as a military failure. Unlike the old surgery joke ("The operation was a success, but the patient died."), in this instance the operation was a failure, but the "patient" (bin Laden) lived.

The task ended up in the hands of about 40 Delta Force, a dozen commandos from the British Special Boat Services, another dozen Green Berets, six CIA operatives, and a few U.S.A.F. special tactics commandos - augmented by high-flying Air Force support, and hindered by Afghanistan mercenaries of questionable loyalty that especially did not like to fight in the dark. Certainly nothing near the overwhelming force General Powell liked to see.

Legend has it that the strongest Russian attack on Tora Bora involved 2,000 Russians, another 2,000 Afghan Communists, and 50 attack choppers and MIGS for nearly a week - without success. Bin Laden had tanks, heavy weapons and mortars overlooking the two trails into Tora Bora; use of helicopters was ruled out due to placement of AAA guns and a number of SAM rockets. A more attractive options was to have U.S. forces choppered into Pakistan behind Bin Laden's forces - blocking their escape. This was denied by higher command - believed by author Ron Suskind to be President Bush wanting to trust his new Muslim allies.

The commandos were also denied the option of mining the mountain passes because some allies threatened to back out. American forces did not help themselves by having two chains of command involved (Commandos and Special Forces), using different radio frequencies and sometimes uncoordinated actions that resulted in temporarily halting the hunt for bin Laden at a critical point. Similarly, there was additional confusion and delay caused by dual leadership of Afghan forces, and the almost certain loyalty of locals towards bin Laden.

Dalton Fury believes that introducing a large American force into the Afghan side of Tora Bora would have turned the Afghans against us, but could have been well used behind bin Laden to block escape. Or, perhaps a large number of U.S. paratroopers could have been dropped into the area.

The one thing I didn't like about "Kill Bin Laden" is that it began with a difficult raid one year later to capture an Afghan credited with having helped bin Laden escape - the purpose being to learn exactly what had happened. Unfortunately, readers do not learn any information gained from that effort - undoubtedly Top Secret.

Regardless, once again, total respect for those involved on the front lines - in this case in Afghanistan.

The author of this book was interviewed on 60 Minutes, providing his viewpoint of what happened in Tora Bora through Delta Force's multiple missions. "Kill Bin Laden" is an easy read and keeps your attention throughout the book.
A few observations:
1. The Afghans have this reputation of being such tough fighters through their battles with the Soviet Union during the 80's. Yet, when the local Afghan militia's are assigned as "guides" to DF, they fired their weapons aimlessly and only fought in battles from dusk to dawn(they go home at night giving up any ground won during the day).
2. The Afghan warlords became multi-millionaires with all the money the CIA threw at them , but their loyalties were never reliable because they could also have been bought out by Al Qaida(one of the theories for Bin Laden's escape). Relying on these individuals really provided a low chance of success. Even with these knuckleheads, the Detla still took names and kicked.......
There were a few negative's in the book. One, without fault of the author, is the lack of detail of Delta Force training. Because it is such a secretive unit, no details can be given as to the type training that they receive(That would be an interesting read). Second, the author gives several theories as to how Bin Laden escaped rather than having solid intelligence. Maybe I was naive, but in buying the book I figured he would have had a more certain idea as to what happened to Bin Laden. On this issue, the author seems to fault himself for not getting Osama, and he was very close(radio chatter). But they never really had solid facts as to whether they were actually that close
The author references Gary Schroen's version of Tora Bora, a great read called "First In" giving the CIA account. This book was much better than "Lone Survivor" and avoided any political bantering. Overall, a good read and would definately recommend

If you like military history books, by all means read it. It is well written and the topic is interesting and recent.

However, the book is disappointingly thin on detail. Perhaps because much of the stuff is classified, but even so, the author should have been able to pull in some personal side stories to make the read more engaging. Like, for example, I would love to read more about those British SBS commandos that worked with Delta - but there was precious little about them.

In general, the book makes it look like Delta are just about the only truly well-functioning and agile unit in the US armed forces (in fact, the rest look a little incapable in comparison, at least from this book's perspective).

Unfortunately, the story is about a failed mission which happens over a short period of time, and most of the time the Deltas sit around with native Afghan warriors, not much happens, and even when they fight, it is almost entirely composed of hiding behind cover and ordering up precision air strikes.

If you are looking for special ops bad-ass stories, R. Marcinko's SEAL stories are far more fun to read. As historical documentary, this is valuable, however.

Overall, I was very disappointed and do not recommend it.

It gives an interesting overview of what the author faced as Delta Commander. Unfortunately it remains rather superficial: Partly because detailed descriptions are omitted for classification reasons, partly because, as a commander, the Author simply wasn't close enough to where the action was and can only relay what he learned from debriefing those who were there. So you get a lot of the classic command level problems of making sense of things, figuring out what to do next, interfacing with other units, not getting what you want for your boys, trying to coax command into approving your desired course of action, working with indigenous commanders and maneuvering and resupplying your men and such, but the nitty-gritty operational stories one might be interested in as well are often told in a mere sentence or two (along the lines of "they hunkered down to rain more bombs on the enemy positions" or "had been handling all close air support missions for the last 12 hours and had called dozens of bombs in" or "by that time, the guides had left."). This is further exacerbated by the author's total humility, portraying himself as basically the least-qualified guy ever to be in Delta and everybody else as Superman (but you largely have to take his word for it, as you only get sketchy accounts of what actually happened).

Overall, it's not very satisfying to the reader to be put so close to the action but still kept largely out of it, and in my opinion you really need a military eye to appreciate what you are getting, with the ability to fill in the omissions with your own knowledge. It's still a pretty good book, reasonably well written and with some unique insight (albeit not much) and a unique view of the battle (a lot of that, I'm giving it the fourth star for that). The mostly command perspective might not be for everyone though and it's certainly atypical for this type of spec ops book.

Somebody should've set Dalton Fury and his team loose at Tora Bora and let them do what needed to be done. Instead, OBL was able to squirm his way out of a death-grip noose and hobble to safety in Pakistan. At least until he met a few Navy Seals. Good book about an important episode in America's mission to quash the Taliban, AQ, and the gathering storm of terrorism in Central Asia and beyond.

"Dalton Fury" (you can easily find his real name with a google search), a former member of an elite special Operations unit has written an unique first-person account of his time with the "Unit That Doesn't Exist". "Fury" took a lot of heat for his efforts from the establishment, perhaps rightfully so (he did sign a non-disclosure agreement when he joined the Unit). Nonetheless, his book is a decent read and certainly informative for any student of the conflict in Afghanistan, the role of Special Operations Forces, and of course, the "Delta Force". The author fizzles somewhat in his disjointed narrative - his chapters skip from combat on the front lines to an entirely unrelated anecdote about colleagues in his unit. All in all an "entertaining" contribution to the body of literature on unconventional warfare, special operations, and Afghanistan.

Kill Bin Laden really isn't about killing a terrorist - its one man's version of events on the ground with a very limited perspective of ground operations and little understanding or analysis of the decisions made by superior officers and staff. Its one thing to bellyache about lack of support but a little more analysis on why those decisions were made would be nice. Finally, the pen name really is a little ridiculous. "Anonymous" or "I'm Worried the Terrorists Will Find Me" might have been more effective. After you've read the book, don't miss "Fury's" interview on CBS' 60 minutes (2 October 2008) [...]

This is an important and risky book. I know because I helped "Dalton," a first-time author, find an agent and publisher and we talked many times during the book's long gestation period. The culture of US Army Special Operations Forces has long insisted that Delta must not be mentioned or discussed -- everything about the unit is classified. Only a couple of other books have been written about Delta and the authors of those books no longer get Christmas cards from a lot of their old buddies.

"Dalton's" book answers the questions we all had after OBL escaped capture or death. How could it have happened? This book describes exactly how, without (in my opinion) compromising security in any significant way. At last it all makes some sense.

The author's decision to tell this story without the blessing of USSOCOM and over the proverbial dead bodies of some of his former teammates means that he will be shunned from "the community" as Eric Haney has been for "Inside Delta Force." He took a lot of heat from some in the community and was encouraged by others to tell the story. He decided to tell the story regardless of the consequences.

So this review is not impartial and it doesn't come from a typical reader. But I thought you might like to know that the guy that wrote it is a very brave patriot who felt strongly that he had some information the rest of us needed to know. It's a hell of a story and I hope somebody makes it into a movie. Well done, "Dalton."

Hans Halberstadt

The book itself was well written and not lacking in details on why Bin Laden continues to elude capture by the US.

I found the story, if one hundred percent true, a sad testament to how politicians can screw up a op with their meddling and lack of a backbone. Several times throughout the book Fury was handicapped by bad/weak rules of engagement, missed opportunities and superiors who lacked the desire to "grab the brass ring" and do what it took to capture Bin Laden.

Looking back, I wished the book had gone into how Delta's are selected. I also wished that the book had ended with something positive being accomplished. But I had to remind myself that this is not a book of fiction and in fact Bin Laden still to this day continues to be the poster boy for terrorism.

OK, this book is pretty good. However this is not the rollicking thrill ride that readers might expect. Be advised, the so-called "raw" writing here is not so much unorthodox, or rough, but rather the book is just written poorly in places, in oddball fragments that don't really tie together.

Still, there some interesting insight into Delta here. Its good stuff, its just not a 5-star eye-popper. I expected more -- but its a decent read.

"Kill Bin Laden" is an excellent book for those with anything from a slight interest in Special Forces to folks with a deeper interest in reading about these shadow warriors who are silent heroes, that operate out of the limelight, but guard our nation with incredible dedication, daring and bravery.

It is high on detail about the usual and various screwups and political blunderings, that have so absurdly hamstrung our special forces in their missions to do their jobs safeguarding us. One thing can be certain, if special forces prosecuted our wars strictly from their own strategic planning, things would get done much more quickly and efficiently.

The clueless bureaucracy above can always be counted on to ruin everything, be it backing the wrong warlord, to allowing terrorists to escape through the backdoor, since they do not have the guts to make true command decisions.

Dalton Fury, the author, gives fine, detailed accounts of the harrowing missions, but the only place the book suffers, is in the details of the actual operations, which presumably are excised to a degree to protect classified info... this makes for a bit of a frustrating read, which ironically, to no small degree probably mirrored the author and his troops' experience dealing with the incompetence of their afghan "allies", the stupidity of the political bureaucracy, and the foot-dragging to truly commit the forces necessary to have decimated the cowardly Bin Laden before he snuck away.

No doubt, given all i have heard about Tora Bora, i was utterly shocked, to understand indeed, just how absurdly small the actual force we sent there to be, considering what was at stake. An entire squadron (40 or so) of Delta Operators is enough to handle almost any small to medium sized mission, and certainly with the help of a dozen or so of the gallant British SBS operators and some skilled U.S. Green Berets, this small force, with their ability to accurately pinpoint sites for the air force and provide sniper fire, proved absolutely deadly, considering they were likely outnumbered anywhere from 25-50 to 1, based on estimates.

I recall watching the bombs drop on Tora Bora on the news, and if you had told me back then, that in the manhunt for the most cowardly and evil terrorist in history, our government had been so concerned with political ramifications and worldwide images, that we had sent only about 60-70 special forces troops there, I would say you were insane.

But lo and behold, "Kill Bin Laden" confirms it. Incompetence, stupidity and politics, once again destroy an important military mission.

Because why, after all, with the most wanted man in the world, who had just gotten through slaughtering 3,000 innocent people on live television, hiding out in his mountain fortress with anywhere from 1500 to 3000 psychotic followers, would you want to send anymore than 60 or so of our troops to get him?

For all the talk, there was precious little action to truly give our best and most valorous troops what they needed to win.

As in most cases with books like this, be it "Kill Bin LAden", "Black Hawk Down", or "Inside Delta Force", the total incompetence of the upper echelons of command and civilian governance are on full display, so much so that it makes you wonder why on earth these heroic men actually waste their time defending our nation...

I suspect, that if Dalton Fury had his way (and most other special forces operators) to prosecute the mission, they would not have relied upon the incompetent, untrained, unprofessional mujaheddin. They would have, correctly decided, that the best way to defeat these lunatics were to actually *ENCIRCLE* the fortress with overwhelming force, block all escape routes, and pound that place into submission until Bin LAden and every one of his followers were either dead or captured.

Kill Bin Laden is a good read, exceptionally frustrating as to the politics and bureaucratic failures involved. It is not quite as detailed or heart pounding as the vivid actions of Delta Force and the Rangers in "Black Hawk Down", probably because this mission was prosecuted more at a distance, with Delta's primary job controlling the air power brought to bear.

It is an exercise in teeth-gritting annoyance for the reader, listening to the author tell his story, knowing that if he and the others had their way, this would have been done right...the annoyance grows and boils as you over and over again are shown just how badly higher ups can ruin absolutely critical missions with their butt-covering, political, and aloof decision making.

Want to know why we didn't drop in an extra 100 navy seals, a battalion of Rangers, and get some of our British allies SAS and Royal Commandos, who absolutely would have been up for the fight? Want to know why we didn't mine the escape routes with thousands of mines to make the passes impenetrable?

Well, i want to know why too...this book does not give you the answers to why that is...sadly...Dalton Fury and his brave men were not given the answers either. The reasons for those decisions remain safely with the politicians and bureaucrats above...while Bin Laden remains safely somewhere in Pakistan, when he should be as dead as Julius Caesar.

Mostly a first hand account of the role elite military units and the CIA played in driving Bin Laden from Tora Bora. These commandos clearly were the key ingredient (plus CIA cash) that made the War Lord, American air power combination work well enough to drive Bin Laden from his stronghold. The book does not clear up how Bin Laden got away, but various plausible theories are discussed. The authors description of Delta force training is not as impressive as Marcus Luttrell's account of SEAL training in "Lone Survivor".

"Kill Bin Laden" is an excellent book for those with anything from a slight interest in Special Forces to folks with a deeper interest in reading about these shadow warriors who are silent heroes, that operate out of the limelight, but guard our nation with incredible dedication, daring and bravery.

It is high on detail about the usual and various screwups and political blunderings, that have so absurdly hamstrung our special forces in their missions to do their jobs safeguarding us. One thing can be certain, if special forces prosecuted our wars strictly from their own strategic planning, things would get done much more quickly and efficiently.

The clueless bureaucracy above can always be counted on to ruin everything, be it backing the wrong warlord, to allowing terrorists to escape through the backdoor, since they do not have the guts to make true command decisions.

Dalton Fury, the author, gives fine, detailed accounts of the harrowing missions, but the only place the book suffers, is in the details of the actual operations, which presumably are excised to a degree to protect classified info... this makes for a bit of a frustrating read, which ironically, to no small degree probably mirrored the author and his troops' experience dealing with the incompetence of their afghan "allies", the stupidity of the political bureaucracy, and the foot-dragging to truly commit the forces necessary to have decimated the cowardly Bin Laden before he snuck away.

No doubt, given all i have heard about Tora Bora, i was utterly shocked, to understand indeed, just how absurdly small the actual force we sent there to be, considering what was at stake. An entire squadron (40 or so) of Delta Operators is enough to handle almost any small to medium sized mission, and certainly with the help of a dozen or so of the gallant British SBS operators and some skilled U.S. Green Berets, this small force, with their ability to accurately pinpoint sites for the air force and provide sniper fire, proved absolutely deadly, considering they were likely outnumbered anywhere from 25-50 to 1, based on estimates.

I recall watching the bombs drop on Tora Bora on the news, and if you had told me back then, that in the manhunt for the most cowardly and evil terrorist in history, our government had been so concerned with political ramifications and worldwide images, that we had sent only about 60-70 special forces troops there, I would say you were insane.

But lo and behold, "Kill Bin Laden" confirms it. Incompetence, stupidity and politics, once again destroy an important military mission.

Because why, after all, with the most wanted man in the world, who had just gotten through slaughtering 3,000 innocent people on live television, hiding out in his mountain fortress with anywhere from 1500 to 3000 psychotic followers, would you want to send anymore than 60 or so of our troops to get him?

For all the talk, there was precious little action to truly give our best and most valorous troops what they needed to win.

As in most cases with books like this, be it "Kill Bin LAden", "Black Hawk Down", or "Inside Delta Force", the total incompetence of the upper echelons of command and civilian governance are on full display, so much so that it makes you wonder why on earth these heroic men actually waste their time defending our nation...

I suspect, that if Dalton Fury had his way (and most other special forces operators) to prosecute the mission, they would not have relied upon the incompetent, untrained, unprofessional mujaheddin. They would have, correctly decided, that the best way to defeat these lunatics were to actually *ENCIRCLE* the fortress with overwhelming force, block all escape routes, and pound that place into submission until Bin LAden and every one of his followers were either dead or captured.

Kill Bin Laden is a good read, exceptionally frustrating as to the politics and bureaucratic failures involved. It is not quite as detailed or heart pounding as the vivid actions of Delta Force and the Rangers in "Black Hawk Down", probably because this mission was prosecuted more at a distance, with Delta's primary job controlling the air power brought to bear.

It is an exercise in teeth-gritting annoyance for the reader, listening to the author tell his story, knowing that if he and the others had their way, this would have been done right...the annoyance grows and boils as you over and over again are shown just how badly higher ups can ruin absolutely critical missions with their butt-covering, political, and aloof decision making.

Want to know why we didn't drop in an extra 100 navy seals, a battalion of Rangers, and get some of our British allies SAS and Royal Commandos, who absolutely would have been up for the fight? Want to know why we didn't mine the escape routes with thousands of mines to make the passes impenetrable?

Well, i want to know why too...this book does not give you the answers to why that is...sadly...Dalton Fury and his brave men were not given the answers either. The reasons for those decisions remain safely with the politicians and bureaucrats above...while Bin Laden remains safely somewhere in Pakistan, when he should be as dead as Julius Caesar.

Mostly a first hand account of the role elite military units and the CIA played in driving Bin Laden from Tora Bora. These commandos clearly were the key ingredient (plus CIA cash) that made the War Lord, American air power combination work well enough to drive Bin Laden from his stronghold. The book does not clear up how Bin Laden got away, but various plausible theories are discussed. The authors description of Delta force training is not as impressive as Marcus Luttrell's account of SEAL training in "Lone Survivor".

Great first hand account of the beginning of the fight in Afghanistan. This book reveals the frustrations that have permeated this operation from 2001 to today and the hard work and creativity that makes Delta successful.

I picked up this book with the expectation that I would read it in my spare time over the course of a few months. I ended up reading the book in one week! I simply could not put it down. The author has an extremely compelling story to tell and does so in an effective manner that makes the reader feel that he/she is right there while the events are taking place. It is also refreshing to get an accurate depiction of what happened after 9/11 during the hunt for Bin Laden without the media's spin on things. I found this book to be inspiring and would strongly recommend this book to anyone.

DF's account makes one further wonder about the nature of the Bush family ties to Saudia Arabia, and if that played a role in the meddling that came from above Fury. Talk of not wanting US casualties, due to increased numbers of US service and associated personnel in the area of Tora Bora when DF needed, requested, and was ultimately denied them in December 01, does not mesh with what the American public would have accepted, nor more importantly, with the soldiers, sailors, et al involved or potentially so desired. Makes one wonder if much if not all of what followed 9/11 was nothing more than for show, and continues to be. What are we chasing in Afghanistan and elsewhere? And does it end? If so, where will things stand?

I'm not sure how many cynical warriors have to be created amongst our nation's citizens before there's real questioning about what our country stands for. But I'm certainly beginning to wonder.....

Dalton Fury and his brave band of brothers (Delta Force style) deserve more credit than the Generals, than Rummy or even W for doing the dirty work of the war on terror. If we are truly interested in ridding the world of this pestilence in the disguise of religion or culture than it would be far better to just let Delta do their job their way. There is no place to hide - either mountains or deserts - where these unconquerable heros will not find you and exterminate you while at the same time acting in the most diplomatic and skilled way with your neighbors or even allies. Read this book and find out the reality of our somewhat languished response to 911.

I just recently finished Kill Bin Laden, and it was truly addicting. When I first started reading it, I thought it would be hard to shake the fact that, as we all know, they didn't Kill bin Laden, but it wasn't. Dalton Fury describes the rigorous and painful procedure it takes to be a Delta officer, and also covers a few missions unrelated to the one in Tora Bora while still covering just how much danger their lives are in 24/7 throughout their attempts to make this world a safer place. If you want to know just how difficult the mission truly was, especially with all the shenanigans pulled by the Delta's Afghan "allies," then you should read this book. I was going to originally give the book 4 stars as the book was winding down, but the ending was a real curveball, and very sad. So I must give it 4 1/2 stars. After reading that book, it has been difficult to find another one that keeps my attention like Kill Bin Laden.

I thought we'd learned some expensive lessons in Vietnam. Apparently I'm wrong, and the proof of that is the book Kill bin laden (lower case intentional) by Dalton Fury (not the real name) and Col. David Hunt. In Vietnam there was constant interference by Washington in the conducting of operations in the field. I thought we'd learned to turn command of combat operations over to field commanders, define, in advance, the rules of engagement and then step out of the way and let them go. I also thought we'd learned that international borders couldn't always be respected, especially when those borders provide aid and comfort to foreign fighters. This is especially true when the host government knows they are providing cover for these fighters and takes no steps, or weak ones at best, to put an end to that cover. Boy, was I wrong. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

Fury was the leader of an elite Delta Force unit inserted into Afghanistan with the sole mission of finding bin laden and then killing him. Not an easy mission but certainly clear enough. No ambiguity here. As Dalton and Hunt point out, not only was there interference from up the chain of command in disallowing mission options, but the Delta Force was paired with Afghan fighters that were very thin in their commitment of finding bin laden. It is a paradox that the mission seemed doomed almost from the start and yet came very close to succeeding. Dalton maintains that they may have come within a few meters of actually killing b. l. The cave the team thought b. l. was in was targeted and successfully bombed. Later, teams searched the area for b.l. body parts but none was ever found. After reading Kill bin laden, one has to wonder whether our leaders really wanted b. l. found and dispensed with.

Kill bin laden is well written. Why shouldn't it be? The man who wrote it was there.

As a veteran, I've never doubted that the U. S. military is the finest in the world. There's not another soldier in the world that can stand toe to toe with the American fighting man. Our combined forces are simply the best. However, it seems clear that even after the hard lessons learned in the past, we seem doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Will we ever learn?

Dalton and Hunt deliver a masterfully written inside story about the failed attempt to get b. l. Kill bin laden is not a partisan read but it is one that should make you angry.

I highly recommend.

Semper Fi

Kill Bin Laden is a truthful first hand account of the hunt for Bin Laden written by the ground forces commander. It was very refreshing to read a current book about a community that commonly puts everything in a classified vault and locks the door forever. Maybe this will lead to a change in procedures where the American public can get more accounts from the true "Tip of the Spear"!

Provides excellent insight into the inside operations of a special operations unit, the nitty gritty of dealing with incompetent and untrusty warlords and human intel, and the frustrations of being constrained by politicians to engage in what is viewed on the ground as effective action to kill Bin Laden.

We, as a nation, are truly indebted to Dalton Fury, Delta Force, and other special operations and military personnel for their sacrifice and commitment to the United States.