Masters of Chaos
 

Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces by Linda Robinson

I just picked this book up last night at Barnes and Knobles. Anyone seen or heard of it?

I was just given a copy today at work by a colleague as a going away present. I'm a little disturbed by the rogue's gallery of leftists who have given this book praise, but I've read the introduction and so far so good.

We'll see though, any book on the military that gets high praise from the left's intelligentsia is suspect. Hopefully, this is a false alarm and the book turns out pretty well.

I picked the book up as well the other day but haven't been able to do much reading yet. The schedule has been a bit hectic here.

I heard it was good by an SF Officer who is in graduate school here. I'll probably give it a read when I have time.

Masters of Chaos
 

"Masters of Chaos"

Just picked up a copy of “Masters of Chaos”.
I have not read it yet but while paging through I saw some interesting stories. In fact one was about my ODA’s mission! I found out the only guy on the ODA that talked to the author was the TM LDR, so of course he is the main character. In fact he is the only character and it reads like he did the whole mission himself! :rolleyes:

The ODA got a good laugh out of that one!

Not bad though as far as accuracy of the first part of the mission. It was described in general but certain key facts we left out to preserve TTP’s and such. I will say I am very uncomfortable with all the names and pictures used. I may be paranoid (I do not think they are out to get me I KNOW they are out to get me!) but I think providing all this info so easily is going to come back to haunt us some day. Homeland security spends incredible resources guarding bridges, tunnels and buildings. Imagine the effect if a couple of military families get murdered by islamists. Imagine a video of it on the internet. The average military guy, SF or other wise is going to be spending his time thinking about the safety of his family not the task at hand. I do not think we could possibly safeguard the dependents against this threat short of bringing them all on post. Imagine when your wife is told her and the kids will now be residing in a nice comfy GP-medium in the parade field for the next several years! :mad:

The cost to the islamists would be small but the effect would be HUGE.

Like I said, I may be paranoid but I think whoever approved this book was only thinking of the short term effects like recruiting and money but NOT the long term as far as GWOT and the next how ever many years we fight these boy-buggering idiots.

I thought part of being a “Quiet Professional” was that you did your job with the knowledge that there would be no recognition of you doing it. (Unless you screwed up of course! :D )
Just my $.02.

SERPENT5XX

Serpent:

I hope they do not clue in, by reading this thread or otherwise. I am not a target, but I am trying to provide my family with basic training anyway. Hopefully Catwoman will accept lessons from TS . . .

I have been dumbfounded by the seeming inability of the Salafi Jihadists to follow up on 9-11. Either we are good or lucky or just premature.

Roguish Lawyer:

The problem is they already have the idea.

They do it every day in Iraq. They terrorize Iraqis into not cooperating with the US. Why do you think they are constantly attacking the Iraqi police stations? The message is clear.

It is not the idea we need to fear anymore it is the ability to carry that idea to fruition.

Hopefully it has been a case of us being good. I really doubt it though. I believe it is probably more of a matter of time. The idea of time is completely different in the middle-eastern mind. Many islamists that I talked to see the attacks being done by the islamists as the next phase in the battle we call the crusades. They still are pissed off about us driving them out of Spain and stopping them at the gates of Vienna. That stuff is ancient history to the average American. Not to the islamists, they talk about it like we do yesterday’s football game.

I am completely in agreement with you as far as preparing your family to protect themselves. Security starts with each individual and spreads out from there. Being ready and able to assume responsibility to protect yourself is an important part of being an American.

I am going to help my family by keeping my name out of books, articles, and interviews!

Most people will think you and I are being paranoid for worrying about this but imagine how the average person would have reacted on 10 September 2001 if you would have expressed worry about terrorists hijacking several planes and flying them into important and symbolic structures in the US? You would have been recommended for a urinalysis!

SERPENT5XX

I haven't read it yet, but had a sneak peak at a buddy's copy. Looks like a really good read.

MSG (Ret) Mike Swift, one of the 5th SFG guys in the book was my DS back in '96.

It is next on the reading list.

Masters of Chaos
 

I just finished it. I'm not in a position to say how accurate the book is, but it is very well-written and a real page turner. The author follows a small number of SF men through their careers as the vehicle for explaining what SF is, how it is used, and how the institution has changed over time. For me, that approach helped to personalize the story. The flip side is that each of the episodes described in the book are coming from one or two men's perspective. So, if you're looking for a "definitive history", this book will disappoint you. OTOH, I enjoyed it a lot and learned quite a bit.

At my current place of employment one of the courses I teach is Surveillance Detection (SD). I am currently single with no children.

Some of the folks I train are going to areas with their family members. As an experiment I worked with my God Daughter who is six years old to see how easy it would be to teach SD TTPs to people with no training. You would be surprised just how well she picked up on the basics.

One of the things I encourage my students to do is to think of their entire family as part of one big Surveillance Detection Team and to train them accordingly. If I can get my six year old God Daughter to detect our role players we use for our exercises than anyone can train their families to do it.

Linda Robinson (the author) will be on CSPAN2 tomorrow, Sunday, 1615-1715. Internet streaming is available if you do not have it on your cable.

While I'm making one of my frequent CSPAN plugs, I'll bring up the subject of Thomas Barnett, C-SPAN SPECIAL
"The Pentagon's New Map"*
C-SPAN is hosting a special program with Thomas P.M. Barnett, author of the book "The Pentagon's New Map." This work is a study of how globalization affects U.S. national security. In this show we'll air a tape of Barnett giving a briefing that inspired the book, followed by an hour of your LIVE viewer calls.
MONDAY, C-SPAN, 8PM ET.

Have your questions ready and maybe you'll get thru!

Edit: Oh, yeah, 30 minutes regarding post election analysis with the Onion and The Daily Show 1 AM Sunday morning on CSPAN2. NDD, you gonna be up then?

That's why requests like this bother me:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...niraq2004.html

Barnett is briefing on Cspan right now. Whether or not you agree with his conclusions, he'll make you think. He's great fun (if you like that sort of thing). I enjoy him immensely, even with my limited capacities.

I ordered it, but it is pretty far down the list at the moment. I'll post thoughts after I read it.

Pictures?
 

Yes, there are a number of photos inside the book. The paper cover has (4) SF soldiers two of which facial features can sort of be seen, but have been shown on TV news in the past. I, can't see them being ID'ed. (Between the beards, sunglasses and shadows one would have a hard time ID'ing them. Some of the picture inside of the book of course could be ID'ed.)

They must have all signed a release for their pictures to be shown in the book. So, I guess they must know the risks involved if any.

I just got the book in the mail yesterday and have not finished it, but so far it's a good read! :munchin