Boy, this is one hell of a debate. Dalton Fury is the guy that wrote the book “Kill Bin Laden“. Dalton Fury is also a pseudonym of the real author’s name. I will continue to use Dalton, out of respect(even though there are those that have found out his real name and posted it). Dalton is also a former Delta Operator, which is at the source of this brouhaha, and the charge is that he broke the silence about something he should have stayed quite about.
Now when these guys write books, they have to do it the right way, or they can get in trouble. There is a lot of stuff out there that they are privy too, and their Non-Disclosure Agreements they sign with the government are pretty stringent. As to wether Dalton went through the proper channels I guess is up for debate and for the lawyers to decide. I will let the reader make their own determinations on this.
But back to the reaction on the forums. Dalton has pissed off a lot of guys. The small community of special forces are very protective of their group, and I don’t blame them, and Dalton has exposed a piece of their history. Now did he endanger lives or endanger national security with his book, I don’t know, and I plan on reading it to make my own determinations.
I do know that a few out there are supportive of what Dalton has done, and that he is questioning his superiors for their decisions about the failed mission to find and kill Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. To me, I think this story does need to be told, if there is fault on the part of the upper command. Dalton knew the risks of telling his story, and he is a real operator who has done his time out there. Obviously he feels he has a story that needs to be told, and he has risked condemnation by his peers and of his command to tell it. To me, that takes balls, and I give him credit for that. The proceeds of the book are going to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation.
It goes along with the theme of Col. John Boyd and his constant battle with the generals at the Pentagon, in the fight to build a better jet fighter. Or with combat operations, where a superior is screwing up and killing folks with bad decisions, then you have an obligation to put a stop to it. Or when General Eric Shinseki was telling the Senate Armed Services committee that we would need more troops to secure post-invasion Iraq, and Rumsfeld and company were discrediting him for saying such a thing and destroyed his career because of it–even though General Abizaid said later that Eric was right. Please note the ‘surge strategy’.
Dissent takes balls, but it is also an important part of winning wars, being a learning organization and finding the right strategies. Do you want to be surrounded by ‘yes’ men, who do not have the guts to disagree with you or say what is wrong? Do you want to be surrounded by men who will idly stand by while you screw up, possibly with grave consequence? Leaders should be so lucky to have men that feel strongly enough about the mission and organization to speak up.
Finally, this is from one of the forums. It is a quote from Paul Howe, a former Delta member, writer, trainer, and veteran of the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia. He was made famous by his actions in that battle, of dealing with field commanders that were endangering the troops lives with poor decisions.
I greatly respect his opinion on these matters, and this is what he had to say in regards to Dalton. Also, I have posted links to two forums that have ongoing discussions about this topic. I highly recommend reading through the posts about the subject, and I will be sure to read the book and do a review for FJ readers in the near future. Also, here is the link to the 60 Minutes show with Dalton Fury. –Matt
Edit: 11/29/09 Check this out. The Senate Foreign Relations Com. has just put out a report that coincides with what Dalton was talking about.
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Every spec ops unit is like all others. They have good and bad soldiers in it.
Here is my problem with this SF forum. You have guys that will bust Dalton Fury’s balls but will not say a thing about General Boykin who wrote a book, who named names and ops and violated OPSEC to the max. This double standard is BS. He is making a profit of selling secrets like Cheney did.
Dalton Fury is a guy who gave up his career because his COC did the wrong thing and he put his career and life on the line to call a spade a spade. For those who stand by and say nothing time and time again when lives are lost and politics take priorty over what is right for the individual and the country, you are a spiritual, moral and physical coward. You want to wear the Green Beret without having the backbone to stand for what it means.
I will judge him after I read his book. As far as non-disclosures go, if you let it dictate your action when wrongful action has taken place and stand by and do nothing when soldiers die and you know that is was wrong, and take no action to fix it you are a worthless bag of guts…
Paul Howe