What do You think about Not A Good Day To Die: The Untold Story Of Operation Anaconda (2006)?
Operation Anaconda was the largest battle fought by American Conventional forces in Afghanistan.It took place in a remote valley in high altitude were the oxygen levels will get low and wear down the men.But Sean Naylor, a correspondent from the Army Times, was there as an embedded reporter and witnessed the battle witch now he wrote the book not a good day to die.In January of 2002 American intelligence became aware of a big concentration of Al Qaeda fighters in the Shahikot valley in Southeastern Afghanistan. Planning began for an operation to strike at the Al Qaeda troops. But the tribes in this part of Afghanistan were less friendly to America than the Northern Alliance that had played such a good part in defeat of the Taliban in 2001. But the number of troops assigned to the operation was kept really small. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld personally had to approve every request for reinforcements, and he frequently turned them down.The book was trying to show how tough and how brave are armed forces is and how courage and hope works out at the end.Not A Good Day to Die and 9/11 attacki think there the same cause the stuck together in the situation and came as a team to fight back cause they know if they had not stopped them there would of been serious consequences and they knew it was the right thing to do witch was stop the bad guys before it gets worser.I like the book a lot i really enjoyed the action and creativity it had in it and author made it as realistic as he can so that we could understand it more and get in the action from just reading the book.
—Eddie Diaz-Conde'
Sean Naylor has an amazing talent for describing details.I now know the personality of each of the 1700 US troops involved in Operation Anaconda, when they first met each other, and what their first dogs were called. Also, what they had for breakfast. On every single day of the mission. Well, I suppose there were some days they didn't have breakfast.Sadly, Naylor does not have the same talent for storytelling, and so I know almost nothing about Operation Anaconda, because that information was kind of hard to make out between all the breakfast and dog-name details. Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I gave up "reading" this book after about 75 pages, then tried to skip through to the real information for the next 200 pages and finally jumped to the end, in the desperate hope that this would enlighten me, at last.It didn't.So, as far as battle accounts or reports about military operations go, this book is a complete failure.I do feel strangely obliged to keep it on my shelf, though, for reference. I mean, who knows if the knowledge when First Sergeant Something or Lt.Col. Something else first served together and what were wearing when they did then may not be useful some day.(also, if anyone knows any good books about Operation Anaconda, please tell me)
—Oceana2602
This was a great book detailing Operation Anaconda. It's apparent the author did a lot of research, and interview quotes from the people involved are seamlessly integrated throughout the text. The book is incredibly thorough, describing how everything ended up the way it did and why. The author seemed to give a very objective assessment about the successes, failures, and the men involved which I appreciated. Furthermore, this book did an excellent job showing how this operation exemplifies how the friction and fog of war can affect an operation and the troops involved.Despite all of these favorable points, I will say there were times when I got lost as to the orientation on the battlefield when the author was covering specific troop placements. Sometimes the author would state a cardinal direction, and I'd be completely thrown off because I'd be thinking it was a completely different direction. A few maps were placed throughout the text, but I would have preferred more maps showing exactly where the troops were located incorporated, along the lines of the maps in the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: Ia Drang - the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam.
—Chrissy
