Talk about good timing:  Eric Greitens, a former Navy SEAL, releases his new book The Heart and the Fist just as the SEALS are in the non-stop news.  It had to help books sales!

This is a well written book about Greitens’ growing understanding of what it takes to help the poor, oppressed, and overlooked of the world. He’s clearly a high achiever (a Rhodes Scholar, for instance) and he’s focused his sharp mind on this issue all of his life. But in so doing he’s taken two very different paths.

In school he focused on social activism through service, non-profit organizations, and justice oriented endeavors. But just before 9-11 he decided that in some situations “good intentions” were not enough. His experience in places like Serbia and Rwanda convinced him that sometimes you need a fist to make a difference. So he joined the SEALS.

As I said, he’s a good writer, and the storyline flows along nicely. He’s thought through his perspective on the world and how best to engage the issues of our day. The book is heavy on his experience making it through the SEALS training, which can be tiresome, but then every special forces guy is rightfully proud of that achievement. I’ll give him some slack on that.

I like how Greitens breaks out of stereotypes. He’s not a flower power save the world type by a long shot. But neither is he a shoot first and ask questions later type. He sincerely seeks balance and has the intellectual capacity to understand a variety of viewpoints. Admirable.

Worth reading. Not a great book, but if the topic interests you then it’s going to engage you.