Excellent insight to a fearless young band of Israeli top gun pilots.
Courageous, professional and accurate. A humane inside look at what Israel does best, it's military prowess bursting through the pages.
Very well written and quite stirring to read as the climax builds up to it's final conclusion.
Israel will continue to survive as long as such fine young men can be found amongst each generation.

Saddam Hussein at one time had designs on the entire Middle East. He viewed himself as a modern Saladin, the unifier who would bring the return of the Caliphate and ultimately lead to the domination of the world by Saddam and his brand of Islam, which was largely secular, but could be used as a cloak.

It isn't difficult to imagine yourself powerful when you have billions of dollars coming in from some of the largest oil reserves in the world. Some countries, like France, fall all over themvelves in a rush to sell you advanced weapons. Heck, Jacques Chirac will even be happy to sell you not only a large nuclear reactor, but a lot of high grade uranium to go with it. Uranium that can be processed into nuclear weapons.

Thus it was that an increasingly rambunctious and hostile Iraq came into possession of a large nuclear reactor that would soon be able to weaponize uranium for manufacture into nuclear weapons.

The tiny State of Israel was an announced target for Hussein. The nation had already fought five wars for its survival. The threat of nuclear armed Islamic nation nearby was overwhelming. It would take only three or four nuclear weapons on Israel to inflict tremendous, perhaps devestating damage.

Israel decided not to rely on the promises of French politicians that the nuclear reactor and uranimum they sold to Iraq would not be used for weapons development. Instead the Israelis embarked on their own "Mission Impossible" - - - launching an attack to take out the reactor, known as Osirak.

It looked impossible. The reactor was almost 600 miles away and three hostile countries would have to be overflown. The only delivery platform that Israel had were F-16 aircraft - which didn't have the specified range.

This book tells the story of the planners and pilots who acheived the impossible.

It is a riveting story. Dissension racked the cabinet of Menachim Begin. The Mossad conducted daring missions to delay the building of the reactor and supplying it with fuel. Key personnel on the Iraqi project were turned into unwitting spies and some died under mysterious purposes.

Finally the decision was taken that Osirak had to be bombed before it became operational.

Planning and preparation took over a year. Only a few people knew of the upcoming mission. Somehow, F-16's needed to be made into machines that could make a 1,200 mile round trip in hostile airspace - a range beyond the specifications of the F-16.

The story of how the mission to bomb Osirak was pulled off is riveting. Claire is a good reporter, though he relies on some dubious sources (Seymour Hersh) and makes many technical errors that even non-experts will detect. One, for example, is referring to the American Stinger as an air-to-air missile. It is a ground-to-air weapon.

Still, the story is enthralling. Daring men, desperate men on a mission to preserve their nation. It's the kind of courage one wishes were more common.

Jerry

Excellent narrative, based upon interviews with the principle pilots. Well written, accurate, interesting and fast reading.

What a great read. Spielberg should give this the same treatment he gave Munich. It would be an amazing movie. Assassinations, espionage, planes! This has it all!

What a great book! This was an amazing story that everyone should read. Very well written. I could not put the book down.

This is a fun and entertaining account of Israel's 1981 destruction of Iraq's nuclear reactor. Claire convincingly argues the necessity of the raid and portrays the imagination, heroism, and skill of the Israelis in devising and executing this extraordinarily successful bit of precision bombing with "dumb" bombs. While sometimes lapsing into over-writing, Claire is on the whole skillful in relating an exciting narrative of the events, mostly from the pilots' perspective. However, one reviewer, an F-16 pilot, notes some inaccuracies in the account, and I commend that review to you.

Claire is superficial in his analysis of the political and strategic wisdom of the raid, intent as he is on making the case for the raid and portraying naysayers as wimps. The last minute cancellation of the initial date for the raid by Shimon Peres' objections is treated with disdain, though Peres' recommendation to see if political events elsewhere might obviate the raid seems quite prudent. There is little discussion of the arguments against the raid. In particular, is it truly a given that Arab possession of the bomb means a second holocaust? Given the inevitable possession of the bomb by any well-financed 20th or 21st Century country willing to duplicate 1945 technology, would it serve our long term political interests to focus on deterrence and obedience to international law? Does a preemptive strike by a nation that already has the bomb in gross violation of international law leave anyone at least a bit queasy? Is it necessarily a good thing that in the 25 years since the raid we've adopted the preemptive Begin approach as opposed to the more cautious Peres approach?

Be that as it may, the unique nature of Hussein as proven over the course of subsequent events, and the unique dangers presented by his possession of the bomb at that moment in history do vindicate Israel's raid. On balance it was the right thing to do. But you won't get a particularly thoughtful discussion as to why from Claire's book.

Still, Claire knows how to tell a good story, and this is a wonderfully easy and fun read. I recommend it.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase: "I COULDN'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN, AND READ IT COVER TO COVER!" This book for me defined that, and if there really is a dictionary, (With famous phrases.) with the proverbial picture next to it, this book should be next to that phrase! This "TRUE" story, written over twenty years after the unbelievable Israeli bombing mission to destroy Iraq's nuclear facility, is too fantastic to believe. Why, was this in depth story never told before you may ask? Because Israel refused to talk about it, or release classified information. But now, this book was written with the "FULL" and exclusive cooperation, of the Israeli Air Force high command. I don't want to give away too much of the book, but it actually gives you information, way ahead of the actual mission also. Such as, Saddam Hussein's childhood and early years, that led and shaped him into the monster he became, as with the building of this nuclear reactor, and the vow to blow Israel off the face of the earth. It traces all the secret training in Israel, leading up to the historic raid. A titillating, page, early in the book, is an organization chart, of all the Israeli leaders in June 1981, and how they voted, pro or con, for the approval of the mission. This story makes James Bond look like The Hardy Boys. During the training of the pilots, Israel had to dismantle part of the jets, to lower the weight, so they would use less fuel, since the round trip mission from Israel to Iraq and back, had to be done with no refueling. Since I am not a pilot, but fly constantly. I almost felt like I was a passenger, along with the brave Israeli pilots, as they had to fly so close to the ground (100 FEET!) for 600 MILES over Saudi Arabia, to stay under the radar. The pilots had to contend with the rising heat from the desert, that adversely affected the jets. There were also things going on outside of Israel, that had to be done, while training was still taking place, to insure that the Iraqi nuclear reactor wouldn't go "live", before the Israeli plan was ready to go into action! These events were so unbelievable, that if you saw it in an Arnold Schwartzenagger, or Clint Eastwood movie, you wouldn't believe it! A beautiful blonde, pretending to be hit by a car, in front of a French Security gate, where the final pieces of the nuclear reactor were being manufactured. With this "blonde" diversion, Israeli agents got into the French manufacturing facility, to sabotage the piece, needed to finish the reactor. Thereby giving Israeli pilots, and masterminds, more time to prepare. The blowing up of an Italian apartment, owned by a supplier of parts to Iraq, as a warning not to supply the reactor. Of course, credit for the explosion was given to someone else. I could go on and on, but, that's why I said earlier, you can't put the book down. I want to tell you more, because it's unbelievable, but just go buy the book, and then I guarantee you, you'll want to tell someone else too. P.S. This could be a blue print for Iran. Wait and see?!

If you are interested in military and middle east history, this may be a book for you. It has a good pace and is very easy reading. The pace of the book is not quite as fast as BlackHawk Down, but better than Bowden's other book, Killing Pablo. It almost has that 'reads like fiction' feel. I agree though, with one of the other posters comments that I read, and that is that there are alot of technical details that are not correct, (like "heat seeking Sparrow's") which does beg the question of whether or not he did not did not get all the facts right. But none the less, still a fun read and if even only half of it is right, its still an amazing story. I will highly recommend this book to my friends.

Raid on the Sun describes the events leading up to to the 1981 raid on the Osirik reactor. It's a solid written, highly readable book. The book jacket nails it dead on by saying that this is something you'd see in a Hollywood thriller - a small country up against incredible odds both technologically and politically and overcoming them. I highly recommend it.

Reading some of the other reviews, I would like to point out that the comparisons to the current situation with Iran are perfunctory at best. Iran's nuclear facilities are deep underground, spread out in multiple locations over a large land mass, many cynically located under civilian areas such as schools. The Iranians learned many lessons from "the raid on the sun." Israel completely lacks the ability to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities using conventional weapons, which puts it in a catch-22: use nuclear weapons (or at best nuclear bunker busters supplied by the US) to take out Iran and become a complete world pariah, crippled under international sanctions; or let Iran acquire the bomb as the world sits and watches, and unreasonably hope that Iran doesn't use the bomb against it (which it most likely will; just look at the Iranian president's statements, fully backed by the Mullahs, for confirmation). In my opinion, better to be alive and alone than dead with world sympathy, but I'm positive that the current leaders - Olmert and Peretz - vehemently disagree with me. I suppose we'll have to wait and see, won't we? There appears to be another year or so left before Iran gets to the point of no return...

Raid on the Sun describes the events leading up to to the 1981 raid on the Osirik reactor. It's a solid written, highly readable book. The book jacket nails it dead on by saying that this is something you'd see in a Hollywood thriller - a small country up against incredible odds both technologically and politically and overcoming them. I highly recommend it.

Reading some of the other reviews, I would like to point out that the comparisons to the current situation with Iran are perfunctory at best. Iran's nuclear facilities are deep underground, spread out in multiple locations over a large land mass, many cynically located under civilian areas such as schools. The Iranians learned many lessons from "the raid on the sun." Israel completely lacks the ability to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities using conventional weapons, which puts it in a catch-22: use nuclear weapons (or at best nuclear bunker busters supplied by the US) to take out Iran and become a complete world pariah, crippled under international sanctions; or let Iran acquire the bomb as the world sits and watches, and unreasonably hope that Iran doesn't use the bomb against it (which it most likely will; just look at the Iranian president's statements, fully backed by the Mullahs, for confirmation). In my opinion, better to be alive and alone than dead with world sympathy, but I'm positive that the current leaders - Olmert and Peretz - vehemently disagree with me. I suppose we'll have to wait and see, won't we? There appears to be another year or so left before Iran gets to the point of no return...

This is a great read. I found my heart pounding as these great pilots defended their country against this great evil.

This is an incredible story of the June 7, 1981, operation that took out Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor and, as a result, probably alone kept him from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Astonishingly, the brave Israeli pilots took 8 F-16's in to enemy territory and all returned home safely. This book details the planning and exeuction of this operation from start to finish.

This is a very good read, especially given the happenings of recent years in that region. Despite the almost unanimous international criticism Israel received for this operation, we probably have those brave men and women of the IDF to thank today for the fact that the world has not yet experienced a nuclear holocaust at the hands of a mad tyrant.

I picked this up having tried to find something to read that was substantive, historical but that was not too dry and long (many pages). I read this quickly one weekend, was a page turner. Seems very relevant today given what some rogue nations are planning these days.

Roger Claire fills a page or two of the book with the names and position of PM Menachem Begin's cabinet and how they voted for the mission before the actual book begins. I immediately wondered why not all members of Begin's (mostly hawkish) cabinet were for the raid at the beginning; I wondered why Yigael Yadin was against it at first. The brief explanation given was that some Israeli's feared that the international response would be that Israel acted as an aggressor, that it would be misread as an act of war, that it might have repercussions, etc., which seems to be a concern that really never disappears in Eretz Israel. However, the Israeli's dropped 28,000 pounds of bombs on the facility in such a way that loss of life was minimal and their true mission of disabling the plant for many years to come was accomplished. I thought it was interesting that their flight instructor was the only one whose bombs missed their target. He was the oldest member and a veteran of the six day war of 1967 who accidently bombed a U.S. surveillance naval ship off the Israeli coast during the war.

Me, I'm decidedly zionist, but sympathetic to calls for peace as long as it is reasonable and as long as lawlessness will not result and reign supreme as an outcome of the "peace process". But of course, Israel was in the international doghouse for a time after that and briefly after this raid. I don't think the Israeli's should have been seen as the aggressor in eitherof these instances. I laughed when I read Ariel Sharon's argument in the Knesset before the 8 F16 planes flew off to Osirak; he posed two scenarios to everyone: "If I were faced with the choice of being alive and unpopular, or dead and popular, I'd rather be alive and unpopular"! Me too! However, was the situation so dire then, was Saddam's facility nearly hot, or could it have waited? Or if they had waited any longer, would it have been harder to disable his program, would more lives been lost? Don't know the answer to those questions, however, Saddam had used weapons on his own people, killing scores of people, but I'm sure glad that reactor was rendered useless. And will be just as glad when other rogue nations' weapons programs are similarly rendered.

I thought Roger Claire's account was focussed and supplied just enough details about world events before, during, and after the mission that one could understand what all was going on at the time. The focus was mostly on the pilots, their training, their experience in these sophisticated glass coffins (F16s), their success with loss of life nil for the 8 men, one of whom perished in the space shuttle Columbia disaster some years ago. Was exciting reading, perhaps miraculous in that the planes' oil lasted those 8 hours or so it took to go to Iraq and back. The Israelis did their homework and knew these planes' specs upside down and sideways. What do I know about airplanes? If some details Claire gives about the F16s are wrong, maybe he should come out with a new edition or add a note of correction for future ones.

WHO ARE THESE that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Isaiah 60:8

I picked this up having tried to find something to read that was substantive, historical but that was not too dry and long (many pages). I read this quickly one weekend, was a page turner. Seems very relevant today given what some rogue nations are planning these days.

Roger Claire fills a page or two of the book with the names and position of PM Menachem Begin's cabinet and how they voted for the mission before the actual book begins. I immediately wondered why not all members of Begin's (mostly hawkish) cabinet were for the raid at the beginning; I wondered why Yigael Yadin was against it at first. The brief explanation given was that some Israeli's feared that the international response would be that Israel acted as an aggressor, that it would be misread as an act of war, that it might have repercussions, etc., which seems to be a concern that really never disappears in Eretz Israel. However, the Israeli's dropped 28,000 pounds of bombs on the facility in such a way that loss of life was minimal and their true mission of disabling the plant for many years to come was accomplished. I thought it was interesting that their flight instructor was the only one whose bombs missed their target. He was the oldest member and a veteran of the six day war of 1967 who accidently bombed a U.S. surveillance naval ship off the Israeli coast during the war. My thought was "what the hell was my country doing there, giving aid and comfort to the enemy???" Which side were we on???

Me, I'm decidedly zionist, but sympathetic to calls for peace as long as it is reasonable and as long as lawlessness will not result and reign supreme as an outcome of the "peace process". But of course, Israel was in the international doghouse for a time after that and briefly after this raid. I don't think the Israeli's should have been seen as the aggressor in eitherof these instances. I cannot really comment, have much to read and study, but I believe that other operations by Begin's government were questionable, as that which happened in Lebanon, yet I think it was quite complex there in 1982. I laughed when I read Ariel Sharon's argument in the Knesset before the 8 F16 planes flew off to Osirak; he posed two scenarios to everyone: "If I were faced with the choice of being alive and unpopular, or dead and popular, I'd rather be alive and unpopular"! Me too! However, was the situation so dire then, was Saddam's facility nearly hot, or could it have waited? Or if they had waited any longer, would it have been harder to disable his program, would more lives been lost? Don't know the answer to those questions, however, Saddam had used weapons on his own people, killing scores of people, but I'm sure glad that reactor was rendered useless. And will be just as glad when other rogue nations' weapons programs are similarly rendered.

I thought Roger Claire's account was focussed and supplied just enough details about world events before, during, and after the mission that one could understand what all was going on at the time. The focus was mostly on the pilots, their training, their experience in these sophisticated glass coffins (F16s), their success with loss of life nil for the 8 men, one of whom perished in the space shuttle Columbia disaster some years ago. Was exciting reading, perhaps miraculous in that the planes' oil lasted those 8 hours or so it took to go to Iraq and back. The Israelis did their homework and knew these planes' specs upside down and sideways. What do I know about airplanes? If some details Claire gives about the F16s are wrong, maybe he should come out with a new edition or add a note of correction for future ones.

WHO ARE THESE that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Isaiah 60:8

I picked this up having tried to find something to read that was substantive, historical but that was not too dry and long (many pages). I read this quickly one weekend, was a page turner. Seems very relevant today given what some rogue nations are planning these days.

I was wondering why not all members of PM Menachem Begin's (mostly hawkish)cabinet were for the raid at the beginning. I wondered why Yigael Yadin was against it at first. The brief explanation given was that some Israeli's feared that the international response would be that Israel acted as an aggressor, that it would be misread as an act of war, that it might have repercussions, etc., which seems to be a concern that really never disappears in Eretz Israel. However, the Israeli's dropped 28,000 pounds of bombs on the facility in such a way that loss of life was minimal and their true mission of disabling the plant for many years to come was accomplished. I thought it was interesting that their flight instructor was the only one whose bombs missed their target. He was the oldest member and a veteran of the six day war of 1967 who accidently bombed a U.S. surveillance naval ship off the Israeli coast during the war. My thought was "what the hell was my country doing there, giving aid and comfort to the enemy???" Which side are we on???

Me, I'm decidedly zionist, but sympathetic to calls for peace as long as it is reasonable and as long as lawlessness will not result and reign supreme as an outcome of the "peace process". But of course, Israel was in the international doghouse for a time after that and briefly after this raid. I don't think the Israeli's should have been seen as the aggressor in eitherof these instances. I cannot really comment, have much to read and study, but I believe that other operations by Begin's government were questionable, as that which happened in Lebanon, yet I think it was quite complex there in 1982. I laughed when I read Ariel Sharon's argument in the Knesset before the 8 F16 planes flew off to Osirak; he posed two scenarios to everyone: "If I were faced with the choice of being alive and unpopular, or dead and popular, I'd rather be alive and unpopular"! Me too! However, was the situation so dire then, was Saddam's facility nearly hot, or could it have waited? Or if they had waited any longer, would it have been harder to disable his program, would more lives been lost? Don't know the answer to those questions, however, Saddam had used weapons on his own people, killing scores of people, but I'm sure glad that reactor was rendered useless. And will be just as glad when other rogue nations' weapons programs are similarly rendered.

WHO ARE THESE that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows? Isaiah 60:8

This account of Operation Babalyon is a fascinating story of the people and circumstances that lead to Isreal's decision to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor. The author, Roger Claire, states that he had extensive contact with the pilots and the various decision makers involved in the operation.

Mr. Claire tells vividly about the human side of the events, the pilot who trained for a very long time for a grueling experience, the senior officer who muscled his way onto the team at the last minute, the general who lost his son in a training accident days before the mission but came to see the pilots off instead of sitting shiva, the politicians, the mothers, fathers and wives who waited, axiously, for the team to return.

However, the book desperately needed an edit by someone who had even a modicum of military knowledge. The author gets terms and facts wrong left and right. Aircraft engines are called thrusters as if the F-16 was the Enterprise. The author gets basic facts wrong including which air-to-air missiles are radar-guided (longer-range but requiring constant guidance from the launching aircraft) and which are IR-homing (shorter-ranged fire and forget missiles) or even which missiles are carried by infantry and which are carried by aircraft. Berms are either 20 feet or 100 feet tall depending where they are described in the book. Barrage balloons are 20 feet are described as a problem for aircraft flying at 3000 feet.

The errors are jarring for anyone who has even a little knowledge of military aircraft and raise questions about the accuracy of the rest of the book.

If you have no military knowledge, or don't mind that the author has only limited knowledge, this is an entertaining and informative book.

If you would prefer a better account by a writer who is a pilot, try "Bullseye One Reactor" by Dan McKinnon. Mr. McKinnon wrote his book earlier when the Israelis still concealed some information such as the pilots' names. Mr. Claire also recommended this book.

When I saw Rodger Claire's Raid On The Sun I was excited to read it. As an F-16 pilot since the 80s, the raid on the Iraqi nuke plant had long been a subject of legend in the F-16 community and I was eager to get the real story and Mr. Claire had access to the pilots and senior leaders to get all the facts strait. It was a good read, and any fan of recent military history will enjoy it. I enjoyed getting filled in on the many details surrounding the establishment of Iraq's nuclear program, the planning involved in the raid, and of course the actual play-by-play of the mission itself.

However, I can't give it a high rating because of problems I had with Mr. Claire's details involving the F-16, which I obviously paid close attention to, and which were so often just plain wrong. They were all minor and wouldn't make a difference to the average reader, but to me they cast a shadow on the rest of the book. Things like "threw on the afterburners" (there's only one) the "thrusters" (nozzle?) hearing sounds of AAA and radio chatter of the gunners on the ground in their cockpit video recorders (what?!) saying the F-16 canopy is glass (it's plastic) "shoved the stick into afterburner" (the afterburner is controlled with the throttle) the reasons for flying in tactical formation (completely wrong), saying the HUD was newly-invented for the F-16 (not), American F-16s used "Stingers" (a surface to air missile) and so much more.... I kept thinking, if he can't get this easy stuff right, what about the important details? Why didn't the author have an actual F-16 pilot proofread his work before publication? Goodness knows there are enough of us out there and most would probably have done it for free! He also could have covered more of the political issues and other surrounding issues more in depth and in my opinion "over-dramatized" a lot of the fighter pilot stuff (a standard ailment of non-aviators writing about fighter pilots) although the mission itself was covered well.

So, if you aren't bothered by all this, read the book. You will probably enjoy it.

I've recommended this book to many people -- it is entertaining, compelling, keeps you on the edge of your seat even though you know the outcome -- nice job fleshing out the main players, and really illustrates Israel's unique military and intelligence style nicely. Even if you aren't into military or techno thrillers, you may be surprised how enjoyable a read this is. You come away giving a big salute to the pure cojones of the Israeli air force.

Technical glitches and a few misc. gaffes cost it a star, but if you aren't a fussbudget, you may not even notice or care.

The good - A great story of politics, planning and airmanship. One can wonder where we would have been in 1991 had the raid not occurred. Claire does a good job of providing the background for the raid. Remarkably similar to what is happening today in Iran and North Korea.

The bad - Unforgivably poor editing, a little overdose of hero worship and a lot of technical stuff that appears questionable, as others have noted. Sadly most of these problems could have been eliminated through a review by a couple of individuals with knowledge of nuclear engineering and tactical flying. The dialogue between the pilots and their leaders seems a little overdone. It seems illogical that if the pilots are truly fuel critical as they came off the target that a few pages later they would be Mach 1+ across the desert given the rate at which an F-16 converts fuel into sound at sonic speeds. Perhaps there were some of the escorts, but the clarification needed to be made.

With the "bad" noted the book remains highly recommended . Perhaps the author will edit the next edition with a little greater care.

My guess is that some young pilots of several nationalities are looking at this book as the year 2006 begins, not for the thrills but to see if there are applicable lessons to be learned.

A nice little read, even if the author does not always understand jet aircraft or nuclear power. This is a story of Saddam's attempts to get the bomb, and Israel's raid that denied them the bomb. There are many characters in this book: pilots, generals, Saddam, Begin, and Jacques Chirac. Chirac sells the Iraquis nuclear technology which could have given Saddam the bomb. His justification....France made a lot of money out of the deal. Just another example of how the Europeans don't care who they sell their technology to.
The book is a blow by blow story of how Israel first delayed and then plotted the attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor. Israel used sabotage, extortion, and then assasination to delay the completion of Iraq's nuclear reactor. Then it plotted the destruction of the reactor by an air strike. The pilot's stories are the most interesting in this book. This was a nice little read.

The book is obviously not written to being a detailed study of the raid but more in the type of one of those many instant histories that comes out. So it's very similar to a novel. Some of the facts are wrong as several reviewers have pointed out and some of the sources used e.g. Victor Ostrovsky are very dubious indeed.

However it's the best study that I have seen on the actual bombing. From it you can get some of the feel what its must have been like to those that participated too.

Saddam. That's right folks, before anti-American terrorist lover Jacques Chirac (and Kofi/UN, Pooty Poot, China, and Gerhard) did everything in his power to stop the liberation of Iraq in 2003, he helped build nukes for a madman with a bad mustache, Saddam Hussein. Of course, like ALL other Arab (except the now ostracized Egypt) countries at the time, Hussein was committed to the destruction of Israel.

Fortunately, with never before access, Mr. Clair does an excellent job in explaining the "do anything for money" (except work) mentality of the French government. While the world deplored Chirac's actions, (including the communist supporting Le Monde?), he barrelled ahead and armed a country committed to destroying Israel that had publicly made its intentions clear! The photo of Jacques with the butcher of Baghdad are priceless.

As for the drama of the secret raid, Mr. Claire explains it in true "Black Hawk Down" (by the great Mark Bowden, the movie, however, was completely sanitized to gloss over the factual account of Bubba and Les Aspin repeatedly denying adequate military hardware for the troops in Somalia to avoid "political ramifications"...otherwise known as committing perjury and being impeached) fashion. You feel like you are in the seat of the American made and supplied F-16s (thank you Ronald Reagan's administration) as they swoop into Iraq through Jordanian and Saudi Arabian airspace undetected, sometimes flying as low as 50 meters to avoid radar!

As all good books on Israeli/Arab conflicts must do, Mr. Claire discusses all of the political and military leaders in detail.

I first heard about this book in the Wall Street Journal. It's a shame the leftists in the MSM (paging Katie Couric) did not give this book more coverage. The author has done an incredible job.

Thank you, Mr. Claire. And as always, thank you Amazon.com.

I am giving this book two stars because it is an interesting and compelling story. But the technical errors are far too many and too serious to allow me to recommend it to anyone with a technical background. Some examples: (1) neutrons emitted from a fissioning nucleus at the speed of light (only massless particles can go the speed of light) and (2) US F-16's carrying Stinger missiles (they carry air-to-air Sidewinders not shoulder-fired Stingers). The author does not understand the simplest physics of nuclear reactors or weapons even though he could have gotten the information easily from Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". Since the author got so many things wrong that would have been easy to find out, I have to wonder how many other kinds of errors were made that I didn't catch.

I enjoyed this book, although it seemed that the author was trying to boost the page count by including extraneous details. The writing wouldn't pass muster either in a serious newspaper or in a writing class.

The part that bothered me the most was the lack of proofreading. For example, there's a description of the liftoff of the fully loaded fighters which talks about passing the 5000 meter mark on the runway. Even B-52 bombers don't require 5000 meters, much less fighter planes. [Diego Garcia, the US military base in the Indian Ocean has 2.25 mile runways for B-52s, which is only about 3.6km or 3600 meters.] As another example, there are several references to Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem (Givat Hatachmoshet) which is first mistransliterated as Givat Hatachmoshem and then mistranslated (although I can't recall the translation).

It's a fun read, but it would be better at half the length and twice the proofreading.

The first part of this book, the cloak and dagger material featuring the Mossad, is drawn from Victor Ostrovsky's _By Way Of Deception_ and reportage by Seymour Hersh. These sources have generated considerable skepticism and controversy in the past, so reader beware.

The second part, focusing on the actual mission, is better. Rodger Claire was granted access to the mission pilots themselves, and their stories are first rate. They were superbly trained, highly motivated, and fiercely competitive. While cross-training on the F-16 in the United States, they impressed the USAF trainers with their incisive technical questions. At the time of this mission they were possibly the best fighter pilots in the world.

This section of the book answers a lot of mysteries, such as how the mission succeeded on a single tank of fuel per plane, how they avoided enemy interception, and why one of them missed the target. Also valuable is material from an interview with an Iraqi nuclear scientist, showing French perfidy in selling Saddam the reactor and uranium in the first place, and his eye-witness account of the Falcons swooping in to bomb his place of work. Thankfully for him, he was gettin his car fixed.

There are a number of annoying factual errors; for instance, Israel did not have F-4 Phantoms during the 1967 war, nor was the F-16 a U.S. Navy aircraft. There are also some surprises. Most of us know that mission pilot Ilan Ramon died in the Columbia disaster, but it's interesting to learn that another pilot, Iftach Spector, led the mistaken attack on the USS Liberty during the 1967 war.

Given the caveats about the first part of the book, I recommend it heartily. These brave pilots and their audacious mission bought the region a precious few more years to deal with Saddam. A bulls-eye!

I didn't expect this book to be this good. It really reads like a short Tom Clancy thriller. It is a very good, detailed account of the planning, and covert operations of the attack. It has everything; secrecy, high stakes, behind the scenes, espionage, humor, and first hand accounts by all the participants. I remember hearing the attack on the evening news in 1981, but I can't believe how little the world has known about the details (many of which were wrong). To me, this book wasn't dull and dry, but very exciting and a fast read. It gives very good background without going into overwhelming, worthless details. I highly recommend it especially to those who are readers of aviation and military history. It sheds a floodlight on an all but forgotten world changing event.

(Also recommend) "Thunder Run: The Armor Strike to Capture Baghdad" & "Six Days of War"