No Easy Day

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen

I had mixed feelings on this one. My initial feeling was that this book should not have been written. The security of the United States stands on our military and how they operate. In my opinion, Mark Owen (not his real name, although his real name is now easy to find), had selfish reasons for writing this book. He wanted to capitalize on this particular job, not caring that he put his fellow soldiers in danger. To me, the people in our military represent honor and dignity; I felt Owen showed a lack of these qualities.

Owen reveals what a gigantic ego he has in the telling of “his” story. Only a few pages in you can see that he definitely thinks very highly of himself and that he clearly has issues with authority. He does not like politics, which he makes clear in the book. I found some of his comments to be quite pathetic, honestly. He basically whines, at times, about being “a tool” of the US Government. Last time I checked, the military reports to the US Government? Get over yourself Owen! If he could have left out the jabs at his superiors (yes, they are superior to you Mark Owen), he could have retained a little class.

On the positive side, I did find his story about how he became involved in the military interesting.  But this is a book about Mark Owen, very little is actually about Osama Bin Laden. If he could have left his bitterness out of it, I would have liked it much better.

Basically, this book was over-hyped. I liked it...but I didn't.