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Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > General
Rob Driscoll, former sergeant with 42 Commando, Royal Marines,
served tours in Iraq, Kuwait and Kosovo. A born leader of fighting
men, he also endured three tours in Afghanistan. The third of those
will go down in history as one of the UK military's darkest hours,
for it marked the first time a British serviceman has been tried
for a murder on the battlefield since the Second World War. That
man was 'Marine A', Sergeant Alexander Blackman, Rob Driscoll's
friend and fellow NCO in 42 Commando, and on the day in question
they were commanding patrols within a few hundred yards of each
other. Few men know what really went on that day in Helmand
Province. Rob Driscoll is one, and, like Blackman, knew only too
well the privations and frustrations of fighting an ubiquitous and
tenacious enemy without sufficient resources and support. Yet
Lethal Shot is more than a compelling insight into one of the most
controversial and divisive cases in recent military history. It is
a clear-eyed account of life on active service with the Royal
Marines, of incursions into war-torn countries where chaos and
anarchy ruled - and of men risking their lives daily only too often
to find that they would not be backed up by politicians at home. In
charting its author's career as a Royal Marine Commando, it
unflinchingly demonstrates the real-life horrors of engaging at
close quarters with enemies such as the Taliban. Rob Driscoll
received a Mention in Despatches for his last tour of 'Afghan', the
citation reading: 'He never bows to fatigue or danger and there is
no doubt that his remarkable acts of selflessness saved a number of
lives for which he deserves significant formal recognition.'
Under the blazing Iraqi sun in the summer of 2007, Shannon Meehan,
a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, ordered a strike that would take the
lives of innocent Iraqi civilians. He thought he was doing the
right thing. He thought he was protecting his men. He thought that
he would only kill the enemy, but in the ruins of the strike, he
discovers his mistake and uncovers a tragedy.
For most of his deployment in Iraq, Lt. Meehan felt that he had
been made for a life in the military. A tank commander, he worked
in the violent Diyala Province, successfully fighting the
insurgency by various Sunni and Shia factions. He was celebrated by
his senior officers and decorated with medals. But when the U.S.
surge to retake Iraq in 2006 and 2007 finally pushed into Baqubah,
a town virtually entirely controlled by al Qaida, Meehan would make
the decision that would change his life. This is the true story of
one soldier's attempt to reconcile what he has done with what he
felt he had to do. Stark and devastating, it recounts first-hand
the reality of a new type of warfare that remains largely unspoken
and forgotten on the frontlines of Iraq.
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