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Article: The Iran Hostage Crisis: Deja Vu in the Middle East.(Culture)
- Article from:
- The New York Observer (New York, NY)
- Article date:
- May 22, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 The New York Observer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Michelle Goldberg
If they weren't real, many of Mark Bowden's characters would seem like the creations of a lazy Hollywood scriptwriter crafting roles for Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. He favors men who are gruff and hard-living, honorable but contemptuous of authority. In his fascinating, occasionally frustrating new book, Guests of the Ayatollah, Mr. Bowden describes Col. Charlie Beckwith, the founder of the Army special-operations unit known as Delta Force: "He was a difficult man, proud, tough, and at times arrogant and capricious, traits aggravated when he drank, which was often." There are weaker, softer people in Mr. Bowden's story, but he tends ...