Code over Country: The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team Six

This book is incredible, and it’s nowhere near a bashfest, just an honest look at how things have been, how they are, and how maybe they can change. It really shows how holding any person or group on a pedestal does a disservice to both the ones on the pedestal and the ones that hold them there.I wish I could find more books like it. I can’t wait to see what the author does next.

You've read about incidents regarding SEAL team 6: in a disjoined and perhaps hero-worshiping way. This book is as corrective.But is it a hatchet job? Mostly, not. The author consistently stresses that, even when they make serious mistakes, the SEALs are blindingly competent and heroic. Indeed, a major themes concern the lack of OFFICER accountability, and the effects of forever wars upon those we ask to fight them.However, there is a bit of overblown language to be found here and there. The most common is the casual use of "war crime".TECHNICALLY the author is correct: there are laws regarding the conduct of war, and violating them is a "crime."But in the same sense, technically we are all criminals: because there are so many laws that we all violate one now and again. Indeed, increasingly violations do not require intent, and yet may even be felonies. However, we save such strong language for the more extreme cases: if we are all criminals, then the term looses its impact...it become diluted. We need to save strong language for when it's truly warranted.When we hear "war crime/criminal" we imagine deliberate mass murder such as the Holocaust. Indeed, we do not usually even use the term for such events as Sherman's march to the sea, the bombing of Dresden, or nuking Japanese cities--and we may even defend such actions.To use that same term for the Holocaust as for kicking the head of a dead enemy fighter once...not long after the enemy tried to cut the head off of a dead American solider...cheapens the term. We need to save our strongest terms for truly extreme situations.Many of the problems trace themselves back to the SEAL's formation by Marcinko. He's long gone, and a persona non grata, but he personally chose 100% of the initial SEALs: they all were heavy drinkers, because he was a heavy drinker...and that's who he picked. If you read books by SEALs, you will see that carried through: a bar in a team house. Drinking "a yard" in order to become a member of the team. And heavy drinking was at the bottom of many of their problems.At the end, the author discusses his envisioned solution: but I think he's wrong to look to Congress for a solution for ANYTHING. They would only make matters worse.

I thought this was a great read, well researched and written. The only reason I didn’t go 5 star is because I felt like the title was “clickbait”-ish by mentioning only Seal Team 6. The bad actors in the book seemed to come from different teams in the Seal community, so I’m not sure why Cole tried making it sound like it was only the high profile Team 6 guys. There’s also some not so subtle jabs at “right wing talking points” when it was really post 9/11 American talking points (in regards to Iraq war / Islamic terrorism)Other than those two issues (the second one obviously being something that others wouldn’t even find an issue with!), this is a phenomenal book that we need to address. The military, in general, seems to try to investigate itself when some issue gets pubLicity and it immediately becomes an attempt by officers to sweep it under the rug or find an enlisted person to place the blame on.We’ve got to figure out a way to get the Marcinko’s, Szylenski’s, Gallagher’s out of the military. Then, reel in the O’Neil’s, Chris Kyle’s, Slabinski’s (even though from everything I’ve read about him, he was a solid dude prior to Takur Ghar), and the douche in Mali that I can’t remember his name. We need to identify when someone falls in these two groups and take care of them. Books like this are a great spotlight on the issue from an outside source. Hopefully, our leaders will take the findings of books like this and “Alone at Dawn” and start getting stuff fixed.

"Complex and nuanced" applies to both the often sordid history of SEAL units malfeasance and the author's attempt to make sense of it. In examining a a score of crimes and military breaches by two score sailors, all from one of the smallest, most tested, and most elite formations in the US military, the author captures the problems; the problems born of having a unit created for limited purposes that suffers continuous mission creep, a covert unit that capitalizes on it's celebrity, and a unit built around maximum discipline that sometimes, predictably, goes metastatic from a lack of adequate discipline and oversight. Written from meticulous investigation and filled with granular details, this expose cannot easily be dismissed with boiler plate accusations of being "anti-American" or "hating heroes." Too many of the victims are themselves Americans. Too much of the embezzlement, betrayal, and violence is "blue-on-blue," Americans abusing other Americans. It's a classic case study in the kind of hothouse, undersupetvised subculture that breeds cults, abuse, and violence in humans who, high-minded but left in more normal conditions, might never come to these transgressive moments. A systemic flaw, as much or more as human flaw, scrupulously examined. A soldier once asked his sargeant why he had to stand guard over a pile of virtually valueless tents stored in the open. It struck him as a stupid, pointless task. "It is is stupid and pointless, but they must be guarded to ensure something even more stupid and pointless doesn't happen because they are here " It should be required reading in our military academies.

I purchased this book after hearing an interview of the author on a podcast - and it was quite the eye-opener. Basically this book asserts that all the familiar high profile SEALs - including names associated with famous movies - have a corrupt background that's inconsistent with what SEALs are supposed to be about.Overall a page turner well worth reading.

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