Book Review: Kidnapped by the Taliban: a Story of Terror, Hope and Rescue by SEAL Team Six by Dilip Joseph, MD, with James Lund
“Nothing focuses your thoughts quite like the expectation that you will be killed in the next few hours or even moments.”
In 2012 an American doctor of Indian descent, working with Morning Star Development, and two Afghan nationals were abducted by Taliban in a remote valley of eastern Afghanistan, when returning to Kabul from a clinic and development site. This book details that abduction and his subsequent rescue by elite American special forces personnel. It’s a thrilling story.
More significant, however, is how Dr. Joseph came to be in the valley and how he reacted and interacted with his captors and liberators. And his finding connection and reason for hope in a situation with would reduce most of us to quivering fear. This is a story of faith, hope and love in action.
The prose is simple and direct as is the story. Definite movie potential, except Hollywood won’t understand many of the characters, especially not Dr. Joseph.
You’ve got to read this book.
(Full disclosure: For ten years Treva and I have supported the work of Morning Star Development in a adjacent valley of eastern Afghanistan to provide an clinic and safe drinking water to the Afghan people. We hope and pray that they, and all people, will eventually be allowed to live in peace in their own land.)
As a Matter of Fancy 