Doorway to Hell: Disaster in Somalia [Hardcover]

Ed Wheeler (Author), Craig Roberts (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 277 pages
• Publisher: Consolidated Pr Intl (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963906259
• ISBN-13: 978-0963906250
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,192,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > History > Africa > Somalia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doorway To Hell - Disaster In Somalia, December 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Doorway to Hell: Disaster in Somalia (Hardcover)

I was in Somalia as a member of the Army's 10th Mountain Division and bar none, I can't imagine any book that could be better written about the situation in Somalia in 1993 than this one. I've bought copies for everyone in my family because by reading it, they will know what I went through.
"Blackhawk Down" was brilliantly done, but it was only about a 2 day battle in Mogadishu in October, 1993. "Doorway To Hell" is about the whole operation and it is so accurate, I had flashbacks when I read about the horrific conditions which I lived through.
It is a book that will be appreciated especially by anyone who was in country, and will be hated by those who made the policy decisions that caused the U.S. to be there in the first place.
I was especially impressed by the breadth and scope of the narrative. It ranges from the policies in the United Nations, White House and Pentagon regarding Somalia; to the experiences of the common soldier who went head to head with Somalian warlord gunmen.
Brigadier General Wheeler and LTC Roberts have done a great service to every one of the 80,000 American veterans who served there and each one of them should get a copy of this book.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Disaster when US troops are placed under UN command, July 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Doorway to Hell: Disaster in Somalia (Hardcover)

General Wheeler and Colonel Roberts have put together a blockbuster that exposes what happens when US troops are placed under United Nations command (foreign officers), and are subject to ill-defined missions then progress in "mission creep" to such fiascos as depicted in the movie "Blackhawk Down." More importantly, they show the REAL reasons our troops were sent to Somalia that include the economic (oil) and strategic (Somalia guards the entrance to the Red Sea and is across from Yemen). One also finds that Osama bin Ladin's "al Qaida" is responsible for training and equpping the Somalis, and still exist there in training camps on the Horn of Africa. A must read, before it's too late and we end up in another quagmire like this one.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doorway To Hell: Disaster In Somalia, December 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Doorway to Hell: Disaster in Somalia (Hardcover)

This is a book that should be read by everyone in a policymaking position in Washington down to a Marine or soldier in a frontline unit. It covers the Somalia operation from the strategic to the tactical to the impact on the individual. The reader will have a hard time putting this down and there will be times when reading it, the reader will be angry at the incompetence of decisionmakers, sad to the point of tears with regard to the horror and heartache that our troops were exposed to, and extremely proud of the work that our American soldiers and Marines did to help save a starving nation. I am buying copies of this book for presents but only for those who are intelligent enough to understand how complex and challenging was Somalia.