NO EASY CONSCIENCE

[Sunny Frazier]

I'm having a problem with “No Easy Day,” the novel written by a member of SEAL Team 6. No, I haven't read it and I don't intend to. I already know how the story ends.

What eats into me is that the book was written in the first place. As a Navy veteran, I am dismayed that a member of that elite squad would break the code the SEAL Team holds dear. Operations are covert. Like Fight Club, the first rule is you don't talk about Fight Club.

As an American, I am appalled that this one person would ignite the flames of our enemies by gloating in print of a well-deserved revenge. Add that to the current incendiary video causing anti-American riots and you have the makings of another 9/11.

As a writer, I am incensed that Dutton would eagerly publish the book, more insulted because I know the Big Six house is owned by Great Britain. Money is the bottom line at the expense of national security—have they stooped that low? Apparently. If that book had been offered to Oak Tree, I would, as acquisitions editor, have turned it down. I'm sure my publisher would back me up. Yes, it would have sky-rocketed our small press to the top of the heap, but it would have been a dung heap.

I can only imagine the utter contempt the entire SEAL Team has for this traitor, “Mark Owen.” I'll bet not one even considered capitalizing on their collective heroics. The spotlight is something SEALS avoid. They exist in darkness.

How do I know this? I dated a member of SEAL Team 2 while stationed in Puerto Rico. I remember the morning Rod called me at work and said, “I'm being dropped by helicopter into shark-infested waters and swimming to Vieques Island. Are we still on for dinner?” This is a typical day of training for these larger-than-life heroes.

Of course, the author didn't use his real name or give the manuscript to officials to edit sensitive information. Freedom of Speech, right? One of the freedoms preserved by actions of men like his comrades, the ones he betrayed.

It may have been “No Easy Day” to risk one's life to kill a madman, but it was no hard decision for one man to sell out the country for thirty pieces of silver.        

[Jed Power]

Probably partly truth and partly fiction.  I don't know anyone who knows which is which.

[Sunny Frazier]

I imagine that's true. So, should be consider the book fiction?

[Jed Power]

As Jesse Ventura, a spotlight loving former Seal says, it's unlikely any of us know the true story in any of this.

[Sunny Frazier]

No. They are identified as a "team," not as individuals. I have to wonder at the ego of the single member who decided to profit from the team's effort. It's not like he did the act himself. Good thing he left the SEAL team because I'm sure the payback would have been bad.

As I asked one of my friends: "If Bin Laden had written a book about how he planned and executed 9/11, would you have rushed out and bought a copy, putting money in his pocket? Or, would Americans have been incensed and possibly seeking retaliation?" I think this man and this book will have repercussions.  

[Jack Getze]

Didn't the President's office kind of blow the whole "first rule" thing by identifying not only SEALs but Team 6?