The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins

This is a very satisfying book, and on various levels. It is well-written, and it gives a most interesting look at the beginnings of our quarrel with militant Islam. What is the main show now was a side show then, but even then it was marked with confusion, cruelty, and tragicomedic absurdity on all sides -- except, perhaps, the Israelis, who carry on war-as-politics with a meta-germanic efficiency that is always impressive.For those of us old enough to remember those dear, departed days of the Reagan resurgence, it is nostalgic to harken back to a time when the Islamists were mainly interested in killing each other on the way to attacking Israel, and we only got hurt when we stuck our nose in. Robert Baer's graceful mediation on assasination in the context of mid-east politics also offers a context in which we might also consider pulling our noses back out. This book is written in a wonderful style that might be called "jaded gonzo." One gets a sense of the author as a person - a person whom one would love to have at the table after dinner with more wine being opened. His deeply knowledgible cynicism is refreshing in itself, and, could it be diffused as a gas into the halls of power, it would be a good antidote to the missionary zeal that characterizes most of the shallow thinking about whatever useful involvement we might have in that psycho-ward section of the world.

It's an amazing book with one problem imo. He talks about 1 guy little to much, yes it's his white whale or whatever but its so repetitive , this guy's does stuff like this and he is always right blah blah blah. That's and some of his own stories are kind of meh, find myself fast forwarding half of those parts. What makes this a book I will reread a number of times is his rules and historical examples, his explanation and break downs of those situations. His advice and humor during that is where this books shines imo. Also his take on drones seems very biased,because it's REMF and he despises those kinds of agents during his time so he just dumps on them for seemingly no reason.So, great book for what I enjoyed it for, minus a couple of parts that didn't interest me or seemed very biased that he gave no reason for.

The beauty of this book is that it uses the real-life experiences of Mr. Baer to shed a tremendous light on the role of assassination in recent Mideast politics. As a CIA operative, he recounts his many difficulties resulting partly from the remoteness, ignorance, game-playing, and arrogance of his CIA command -– contrasted with the fantastic successes of his nemesis, al-Hajj Radwan, responsible for the suicide bombing of the Marine Base in Beirut under the Reagan administration. This is not a novel, rather a look into the mind of a military professional, many of whose insights come from observations of the near-impossibility - as a foreigner, with limited intel, and inferior direction - of hitting a highly disciplined enemy. Good, sobering, read.

This entertaining trek down Baer's highly-redacted past misses the meat and seasoning of the full story like a meal of salad and fish soup. Focusing on Baer's own hunt for one Mid-East antagonist that ends with him "high-tailing out like a three-legged jackrabbit" when his quarry appears to turn the tables, this picaresque collection of anecdotes and killing techniques is at its best when Baer's formidable mother pays him a visit. She never deserts her quarry, never misses an opportunity and fearlessly skewers all the Nazis, philanderers and corrupt bureaucrats that seem to pop-up when she's on scene like tin rabbits in an arcade shooting gallery. Baer himself is enamored of the elegant mano-a-mano putting down of societal impedimenta and despises the sterile nouveau-drone world where air-conditioned jump-suited glorified RC hobbyists take orders from contractors in Utah sifting through screens full of dots glowing with ever-increasing levels of risk-denoting hue stemming from cyber-analytics. He prefers those who dress in scuffed shoes and jeans, share three cups of tea with his quarry, inhale the aroma of his world, admire the music and women that surround him, assess the extremity of risk he presents first-hand in the target's tongue, then inject a drop of adenosine with a 50-gauge needle into his nictitating membrane while a team of like-minded operators hold him still in his bed. Ah ... the good old days.... Unfortunately, the book amounts to little more than bare sketches of publicly-released accounts of Mid-East mayhem thinly tied to the hunt for the killer of Navy diver Robert Stethem and author of such horrors as the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon. There are tales of Mom for comic relief, and the aforementioned "rules." A good adventure read, but devoid of context, reflection and depth. Thankfully, it's most admirable aspects are the author's charming humility coupled with a complete lack of admiration for things that go clank. While hardware is definitely part of the story, we get the feeling that Baer would be as mystified by a modern automobile engine as the next fellow. Definitely relatable, Baer's greatest gift in this little book is to appeal to the secret assassin inside us all. After all, murder mysteries are wildly popular, and what boy doesn't fantasize about being on the third floor in Abbottabad, dropped in by Blackhawk, with an "arrest" warrant in his Velcroed pocket?

Book was in excellent condition. Very cool info and easy to read!

boring ,boring,boring!!!!! I want my money back!To worsen my experience, kimdle is not as good as a Sansumg phone, kindle.is hard to handleboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringboringi want my.money back.

Die Lieferung kam überpünktlich an.

Robert Bear speaks the truth of a man who has been there and done that. His other works are work checking out.

Scary as heck. If this is the real world... I am happy I live in ignorance. .Worth the read....but if you are sensitive about the state of the world....not recommended. I loved it though.