Code Over Country, Matthew Cole
Code Over Country, Matthew Cole
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Code Over Country
The Tragedy and Corruption of SEAL Team Six

Author: Matthew Cole

Narrator: Braden Wright

Unabridged: 12 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/22/2022

Synopsis

A hard-hitting exposé of SEAL Team 6, the US military’s best-known brand, that reveals how the Navy SEALs were formed, then sacrificed, in service of American empire.

​The Navy SEALs are, in the eyes of many Americans, the ultimate heroes. When they killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011, it was celebrated as a massive victory. Former SEALs rake in cash as leadership consultants for corporations, and young military-bound men dream of serving in their ranks.

But the SEALs have lost their bearings. Investigative journalist Matthew Cole tells the story of the most lauded unit, SEAL Team 6, revealing a troubling pattern of war crimes and the deep moral rot beneath authorized narratives. From their origins in World War II, the SEALs have trained to be specialized killers with short missions. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan became the endless War on Terror, their violence spiraled out of control.

Code Over Country details the high-level decisions that unleashed the SEALs’ carnage and the coverups that prevented their crimes from coming to light. It is a necessary and rigorous investigation of the unchecked power of the military—and the harms enacted by and upon soldiers in America’s name.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Murtaza on January 26, 2022

Matthew is a friend and colleague who I have spent many evenings discussing SEAL Team Six with, and I can say that he likely knows as much about the subject as anyone not actual in the SEALs. This book is the distillation of several years of his work and reporting, putting it into a broader historic......more

Goodreads review by Steve on March 09, 2022

While there are some “truths” to his story, from the beginning I came across simple inaccuracies on the unit and training that as an investigative reporter and writer of his stature shouldn’t have made. His credibility is tainted from the onset. I’ve got a critical eye since I’m a retired SEAL and a......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie_Rae on December 23, 2024

There’s an inherent challenge that comes with writing a book about the Navy SEALs and, in particular, SEAL Team 6. It isn’t that SEALS aren’t unwilling to share stories. In fact, there’s an industry built around this. A cursory glance at the military section of your local bookstore will feature any......more

Goodreads review by CASPER on February 08, 2022

Matthew Cole takes his years of experience reporting little-known conflicts in the "War on Terror" and covers the most famous "Secret Military Unit in America" S.E.A.L. Team Six, or as it is officially known in Navy parlance DEVGRU. The Murder of Green Beret Staff Sargeant Logan Melgar in Mali by me......more

Goodreads review by Socraticgadfly on January 20, 2023

A disturbing and unvarnished look at how the "Forever War" has lead to forever psychopathy, forever corruption and more among this Hollywood-vaunted military unit, as well as its manipulation for various ends and a broader military establishment's refusal, or so it seems, to engage in reforming it.......more

Quotes

“Matthew Cole has produced a searing and unvarnished history of a state-sponsored organized crime syndicate that operates globally with impunity bestowed upon it by the United States government. Since 9/11, Navy SEAL Team 6 has been elevated to legendary status in the media, and its members showered with medals and accolades from presidents, especially in the aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Through an even-handed accounting of the failures and successes of SEAL Team 6, from its Cold War origins to the present, Cole has masterfully documented the bloody, dark underbelly of these ‘quiet warriors.’ He exposes the sociopaths and murderers who operate on the tip of the spear of the covert US war machine, along with the military and political leaders who have shielded them from accountability. Code Over Country is a meticulously crafted corrective aimed at dismantling the dishonest mythology that dominates the public understanding of the most elite fighting force in US history.”
 —Jeremy Scahill, New York Times–bestselling author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army and Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield

“Matthew Cole is telling us what we, in America, need to know about some of those men celebrated in movies and media as heroes in SEAL Team 6. The real issue, as Cole makes clear, is the leadership and command structure that shields and protects criminal behavior. This is not a book about heroism, although there is much, but tolerated wrongdoing.”—Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

“Matthew Cole’s Code Over Country is a remarkable achievement. Cole has flanked the hagiography that has for so long protected the image of SEAL Team 6, and has cut deep behind the lines to tell the brutal truth. After reading this book, I realized that there is the Hollywood version of SEAL Team 6, and then there is the truth, laid bare by Matthew Cole.”—James Risen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of the forthcoming The Last Honest Man: How Frank Church Fought the CIA, the Mafia, J. Edgar Hoover, and the National Security State

“Journalist Cole debuts with a searing investigation… Backed by meticulous research and lucid insights into SEAL culture, this is an impassioned and persuasive call for reforming one of the world’s most elite fighting forces.”—Publishers Weekly

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