Marc Ambinder

In this incredibly small book author managed to put as many information about JSOC as possible. We follow JSOC from the very start of War on Terror and its evolution to deadly and highly capable military command that it is today.

It is always interesting how basic tenets of combat get re-invented and then lost, and so on in cycles. This is what happened with JSOC - in a move very much like one taken by Israel, steps were made to make a nimble and deadly corps capable of striking wherever it show more is necessary. I mention Israel here because this country is in almost constant war footing with its neighbors from the very beginning and to be able to cope with it, Israel had to create force able to match the more numerous enemies. And this happened by combining all the intelligence and combat resources at the disposal of relatively small security force.

It takes a very capable commanders (generals Flynn and McChrystal) to break the inter-agency barriers and pursue the goal of creating small and versatile strike force. When they finally enabled the forces to share information and participate in combined operations JSOC started to grow and its special operations capabilities grew almost exponentially. They pretty soon became force multiplier and enabled the rest of deployed forces to fight more efficiently.

Author shows how rivalry remained but (hah, could not guess) on management level while on operational level things continued to flourish.

Final few chapters tackle the question of where is JSOC aiming for in the future. Heavy utilization in CT operations seem to be a sole focuse of the entire command. But in light of events after the book was published it is visible that JSOC certainly has place in the modern world. But with such a capable force extra level of care is required to avoid issues that happened in the past (1980's events described in excellent book "Secret Warriors", especially Iran Contra affair that blemished US SOCOM for decades).

I have to admit that I am slightly surprised by some of the comments where people are shocked by covert JSOC operations outside of Middle East (namely China). It is like being surprised by India's role in Sri Lanka conflict with Tamil's, or constant Pakistan's paramilitary operations in Punjab, or both Pakistan's and India's secret war with China, China's covert wars especially against ROC, or North/South Korea infiltrations, European stand behind armies, or [not so] secret war against narco cartels in Central and South America....... and so on and so on. I like it when people decide to think that nations love each other. There are only and there will be only alliances and these are always temporary (remember the CIA industrial espionage affair in France at the start of 90's). And forces used to combat these silent wars are forces exactly like JSOC.

Excellent book, highly recommended to everyone interested in military and special operations in particular. show less

Very poorly proofed and edited with frequent misspellings and omitted words. In particular, too, the author should learn the difference between ordinance (a law that a city council might pass) and ordnance (without the letter i, the stuff that goes boom-boom), because if you're going to write a book about the deadliest boom-booms of all, you ought to know that the word doesn't include the letter i.

The book itself isn't bad but it tends to be a bit superficial. It also tends to be a bit too show more glorificatory of Ronald Reagan. Now look, I very much agree that Reagan's talent for congeniality helped end the Cold War without blowing up the planet, but Ambinder sometimes lays it on a little bit thick. And worst of all, the book's epilogue is overly optimistic as to the CIA's current day success in learning from its intelligence failures of the early-to-mid eighties. Anyone ever hear of yellowcake and aluminum tubes, just as one example? show less

If you're looking for thrilling tales of bravery and action, this is not your book. If you want a sober, factual account of one of the most secretive and significant elements in the US government today and the Global War on Terror, read on.

Ambinder uses his unparalleled access to JSOC personnel to explain how JSOC pioneered a fast and lethal combination of intelligence and action that broke the back of the insurgency in Iraq and lead to the death of Osama bin Laden. Delta Force and the Navy show more SEALS are one of the success stories, adapting quickly to collect intelligence, share it across agencies and units, and use it to roll up terrorist networks. But beyond the Middle East, JSOC operators have conducted missions in China, Peru, and Africa.

Ambinder is perhaps a little too favorable to JSOC, and minimizes the contributions of conventional forces and the CIA. He also believes that JSOC operations are legal, and that the peopel responsible for torturing detainees in 2003 and 2004 have been appropriately punished (yeah, right). But that aside, this is about as objective as anybody is going to get on America's shadow military force. show less

I was impressed by much of the research, but did not enjoy some of the sensationalist-type claims which belong better to a newspaper "rag". Even bringing up Area 51 seemed to be a maneuver to attract the loony-tunes crowd to buy the book.

I'm certainly not dismissing the book and all its wonderful stories, it's just that I don't like the government's attempts at secrecy to be scorned when the safety of millions is at stake. If the Chinese are stealing our Defense secrets, we obviously face a show more crisis of secrecy in our country and need to move fast to protect our nation's military and business confidential research. show less