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View Full Version : "Special Forces War On Terrorism In Afghanistan"


wolfhound227
13 December 2003, 15:59
Okay, I picked this book up a couple of weeks ago:

"Special Forces War On Terrorism In Afaghanistan" by Eric Micheletti. (ISBN: 2-913903-90-8)

It ran me $37.95 . It's a history of Operation "Enduring Freedom" and has an excellent collection of pictures of just about every stripe of SF and SOF that were in theater. The pictures, many we've seen and some that we haven't, are good.

However... This book is a French publication, and it is handicapped by this.

So for the 10% who are still reading this I'll list the pro's and con's.

1. Great Pictures.

2. 21 chapters loaded with pictures and text dedicated to:

US Army SF
160th SOAR
Navy SEALs
Delta
75th Ranger Regiment
PSYOPs
Civil Affairs
USAF CCT- PJ's CSAR
CIA SOF
Canadian SF
British SAS, SBS
Australian SAS
New Zealand SAS
Norwegian SF
German KSK
Danish SF
French SF (:eek: )
ISAF SF

3. The book gives a good overview of what each unit did durring the conflict.


What's bad:

It's a French publication. They can't say anything nice, they imply that the Ranger's jump on Bolangi was a "Dog and Pony Show" and snidely point out that the jump came only after Pathfinders had marked the drop zone, as if the Pathfinder could have just done the mission themselves....you can see where much of this book goes. They don't say it directly but they imply that the incident at the Kanahar hospital was overkill.

Words like:

Victory
Terrorists
Al Caida

are always on quotation marks.

I debated for a few weeks even to write it up on this board but then I figured the book out. It's a comedy piece. I found that if I read the book with a snooty French accent that it took on a whole different light. It's strange that a book that is good on many levels is so synical.

The funniest/wierdest aspect of this book is that they have guys modeling various uniforms with the propper weapon and load-out to better give the read a clear picture of what is being shown in the real-world photos...and the models are all swarthy frech dudes. So if you ever wondered what a guy from 1/75 would look like if he never bathed on purpose then you should check out the book.

It's not a bad book over all so if you see it on the shelf then give it a close look.

BadMuther
13 December 2003, 16:10
Wolfhound, see my comments in the thread here. (http://www.socnetcentral.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30860)

wolfhound227
14 December 2003, 13:47
That pic was on the DoD's "Enduring Freedom" image gallery.

I like the book myself and the pictures are great and for the most part it's a good cut-and-paste job. It's just that some of the text just comes off a little too snyde and sarcastic in places, but that might just be me.

I think the book is good for refference , hell I wouldn't have bought it otherwise.

BadMuther
14 December 2003, 16:00
I bought the book for the pics.

A lot of the text is way off. Oh well.

Jim

HK FAN
11 January 2004, 23:41
Not only was it printed in France, But I really like the part
"Although the French Special Forces teams were absent at the beginning, they landed In Afganistan to fight along side the coalition forces during the summer of 2003". I caught those little remarks myself.

SGTROCK
13 January 2004, 17:37
Originally posted by wm311
I bought the book for the pics.

Jim Me too!

ROCK

BadMuther
13 January 2004, 18:24
Good book, ain't it?

Expensive tho......

SGTROCK
13 January 2004, 18:57
Originally posted by wm311
Good book, ain't it?

Expensive tho...... Yeah this one aint that bad! I picked it up and 'Ultimate special Forces" by Hugh McManners. This book had so many innacuracies I didnt know what to believe when I read the parts that I dont know about. It was $30 bucks but good pictures. The pictures dont make up for the innacuracies though.

ROCK

BadMuther
13 January 2004, 19:22
Felt the same way...

as for the other book, it looked good too, but I already have all the pics in it!

Jim

airbornelawyer
13 January 2004, 20:45
Originally posted by HKOPERATOR
Not only was it printed in France, But I really like the part
"Although the French Special Forces teams were absent at the beginning, they landed In Afganistan to fight along side the coalition forces during the summer of 2003". I caught those little remarks myself. Fighting in Afghanistan hasn't exactly stopped with the fall of the Taliban regime. France is just one of a number of countries who have sent combat forces (and not just ISAF peacekeepers) to Afghanistan. These have included combat battalions from Italy and Romania as well as special operations forces from various countries.

Danish, German, Canadian, New Zealand, Norwegian, Australian and Turkish SOF contributions to TF K-Bar were made public way back in July 2002 (much to the embarassment of New Zealand, whose government hadn't admitted SAS participation to its own parliament at that point). And the presence of British SAS and Royal Marines and Polish GROM was also acknowledged.

In the ongoing operations, some of these same countries have sent forces again, and others have joined them. The only ones I know that has been officially acknowledged are Australia and Lithuania. Italy sent SOF as part of the airborne battalion task force known as Task Force Nibbio, which returned in November 2003, but these SOF remained with the Italian TF, and weren't assigned to the C-JSOTF. Actually, the deployment of French SOF hasn't been publicly acknowledged by the French government, so M. Micheletti is treading on OPSEC grounds.

BTW, in comparing Micheletti's books (and his magazine RAIDS) to books like McManners' that ROCK mentions, I would give Micheletti the edge. At least Micheletti's pictures are usually of the actual unit. Most of the books I see at B&N pad them out with Land Warrior publicity shots, Ranger pictures in the SF section, and SF pictures in the SMU sections. One recent one even had a section on "Marines in Baghdad" where a guy's 10th Mountain Division patch was visible. :rolleyes: