The generals said it was a rescue operation. Everyone knew it was a suicide mission. Zeb Carter volunteered.
Sori. Western military generals shudder when they hear the name. It is a remote, inaccessible village in Afghanistan, high up in the Hindu Kush mountains. It is where a dreaded Taliban terrorist hides and from where he conducts his murderous raids.
Villagers have a special name for the mountain on which Sori is perched. Mountain of Death. Sori is also where the Taliban hold three American soldiers captive. All attempts to free them have failed. Military operations and negotiations have proved fruitless. As the terrorists threaten to execute the soldiers, Zeb Carter volunteers to mount a rescue attempt. Alone.
On the Mountain of Death, the one person who might have the slightest chance is the man who doesn't fear dying.
The generals said it was a rescue operation. Everyone knew it was a suicide mission. Zeb Carter volunteered.
Sori. Western military generals shudder when they hear the name. It is a remote, inaccessible village in Afghanistan, high up in the Hindu Kush mountains. It is where a dreaded Taliban terrorist hides and from where he conducts his murderous raids.
Villagers have a special name for the mountain on which Sori is perched. Mountain of Death. Sori is also where the Taliban hold three American soldiers captive. All attempts to free them have failed. Military operations and negotiations have proved fruitless. As the terrorists threaten to execute the soldiers, Zeb Carter volunteers to mount a rescue attempt. Alone.
On the Mountain of Death, the one person who might have the slightest chance is the man who doesn't fear dying.
Overview
The generals said it was a rescue operation. Everyone knew it was a suicide mission. Zeb Carter volunteered.
Sori. Western military generals shudder when they hear the name. It is a remote, inaccessible village in Afghanistan, high up in the Hindu Kush mountains. It is where a dreaded Taliban terrorist hides and from where he conducts his murderous raids.
Villagers have a special name for the mountain on which Sori is perched. Mountain of Death. Sori is also where the Taliban hold three American soldiers captive. All attempts to free them have failed. Military operations and negotiations have proved fruitless. As the terrorists threaten to execute the soldiers, Zeb Carter volunteers to mount a rescue attempt. Alone.
On the Mountain of Death, the one person who might have the slightest chance is the man who doesn't fear dying.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170578337 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
| Publication date: | 11/13/2018 |
| Series: | Zeb Carter Thrillers , #1 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 814,198 |
Related Subjects
Read an Excerpt
Roar
The New Conservative Woman Speaks Out
By Scottie Nell Hughes
WORTHY PUBLISHING
Copyright © 2014 Scottie Nell HughesAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61795-376-7
CHAPTER 1
Why We Need to Find Our ROAR
Edit article. Change out washer to dryer. Add dry clothes to pile in corner of room for folding. Check Tesla stock ... don't need to sell. Restart frozen computer. Let dogs out. Confirm Fox News hits next week. Try to book hotel reservations. Fix peanut butter pancakes and cereal for breakfast. Call next hotel because first price will never get approved by Kellen. Load dishwasher. Clean up dog poop upstairs. Have interview with Orlando radio station on Obamacare. Holler at kids to pick up bonus room or else they don't get playdates tomorrow. Oh wait ... I need to schedule playdates for tomorrow.
Fix second helping of peanut butter pancakes for Lexi. Send Facebook messages to moms for playdates. Give dog thyroid medicine. Send article to TPNN, Townhall, and Christian Post. Let dogs back in. Confirm conference call with publicist to talk about book cover. Tweeze eyebrows. Order baseball team hats for Saturday (pay overnight shipping fee). Receive breaking news alert on phone ... Yikes! Send quick tweet about breaking news.
Call Mom and Dad and find out how the funeral went. (Yes, I know my cousin is skinny and her kids are perfect. Why didn't I get those genes? I don't know. Can we move on?) Remind Chris to switch money from "fun account" over to primary bank account so I can pay half of Verizon bill hoping they won't shut off phone. Break up screaming match and ... "No, Lexi, you cannot sell your brother!" Send e-mail to Ted Cruz's press secretary, confirming interview next week. Brush teeth. Tell kids to brush teeth (which doesn't mean they will). Yikes! Whose video is that on my website? Send note to get it removed. Take vitamins. Send donation letter to baseball team parents ...
AND IT'S ONLY 10 A.M.!!
More than likely you can relate to this type of schedule and agree that life gets pretty chaotic for us women sometimes. What can I say ... maybe misery does love company?
I have to turn in two chapters to my book editor in four days, and between now and then my daughter, Lexi, is turning six. My son, Houston, has his first spring game and baseball jamboree, and I need to prepare a Sunday school lesson, host my ninety-one- and seventy-two-year-old cousins for dinner, and get prepped and ready for my NYC trip next Wednesday. Not to mention the never-ending mountain of clothes that I swear are back in the dirty pile as soon as I move them to the clean pile.
I don't want to belittle my single sisters who I imagine sitting in a quiet room to gather their thoughts and write their literary masterpieces, as I know they have demands of their own. I must admit, at this moment I am green with envy as I imagine a woman sitting curled up in flannels in front of the fireplace with a cup of tea or coffee and her laptop. She is effortlessly typing away as the peaceful snow swirls outside her window. This calm environment can only produce a work full of complete, uninterrupted thought and wisdom.
I don't know why I thought writing this first book was going to be a romantic and blissful experience. I feel like once again I was fooled by some movie that gave me an unrealistic idea about being an author, just as I was when it came to my first pregnancy.
I know I am not the only one who thought her first pregnancy would be filled with cute overalls, afternoon naps in the breeze, and midnight cravings of chocolate-chip ice cream and pickles. The kind of pregnancy where the girl looks "glowing" and her figure with her "baby bump" looks like she is the silhouette on a baby-shower invite.
My first pregnancy looked more like an infomercial for birth control. After gaining sixty-four pounds, I was completely convinced my body was being cruelly controlled by an ex-boyfriend who wanted to inflict as much pain on me as I did on him. The only blissful moment was when I could finally soak in a tub at the end of a day. But alas, that too would be ruined when I later looked in the mirror at my pale, discolored, zit-covered skin and formerly blond, now naturally mousy-brown, frizzy hair and wondered how God could ever put a woman through this transformation and call it a blessing.
Writing this first book is exactly like being pregnant with my first child: torture. But despite all of the pain, I look at this miracle known as my child and I would go through all of the suffering again because I know I produced a person who someday will make a difference in the world.
Despite the stress and the lack of sleep this book has caused me over the past few months, the message within needs to be told. I have to speak out so that other Conservative women will know they are not alone in their quest to save their family, their communities, and their country.
Today's Conservative woman does not get to be made from a cookie cutter, as we are all coming from different backgrounds, environments, situations, and viewpoints. Many of us today were blessed to be born with a voice and grow up in an environment that encouraged us to grow in opinion and expression. Yet, because of the ever-changing dynamic of today's society and the aggressive assault of the Progressive agenda, I believe many women today are realizing the power of their emotion and their voice within their own microcosm.
Thanks to social media, every woman has the same opportunity to influence another in regard to all subjects under the sun, including fashion, health, and child raising. Therefore, we need to realize the strength we have as individual Conservative women to make a difference and, when united, to tap into our collective, unlimited potential to fight those on the Left. Regardless of whether you have one hundred or one thousand followers on Twitter or enough friends on Facebook to fill an auditorium, those are potential voters, and they are going to either choose to vote alongside your values or vote to take them away.
Lies from the Left
There is no subject or area in our time that has been left alone by the Left. Nothing is sacred to them, and to most people who fall left of the center line, regardless of what they call themselves, the ultimate goal is to take control from your hands and put it into the hands of those who agree with their point of view. This is not only a redistribution of wealth; rather, this is a redistribution of life. From their point of view, they are the good and we Conservatives are the bad.
The weakest link in the Conservative movement today unfortunately falls on the shoulders of the female. So many in our movement have decided to stay quiet for various reasons or simply because we are overcommitted. But notice the superficial story told by the Democrats that Conservative women are ignorant, Kool-Aid-drinking fools who are unable to make our own decisions without the guidance of our fathers, husbands, or other male influencers.
This type of twisted thinking couldn't be further from the truth as today's Conservative woman is not one who can be so easily defined and stereotyped. Yet, why is it that the Left can so easily create a PR campaign that sells the false, slanderous narrative about today's Conservative female? When I think of strong female leaders, the majority of the most obvious ones who come to mind are on our side. Those women on the Left who have taken the spokesperson role are not as numerous, and yet the overall perception is that the majority of women today fall into this political persuasion.
Let's take the most prominent leading lady of the Left, which is undeniably Hillary Clinton. Ask any self-identifying Democrat, female or male, who the most prominent heroine is and Hillary Clinton would be their quick response. In a 2014 Washington Post poll, the former First Lady found herself dominating 6–1 over her nearest contender, Vice President Joe Biden, for the coveted place at the top of the 2016 ticket for the Democrats. The only other woman on the list of possible nominees for the presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket was Elizabeth Warren, who was only a few percentage points behind the VP.
Sprinkle in Wendy Davis of Texas, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, and a few outspoken yet outdated Hollywood celebrities, and the list of Democratic ladies is few.
On the reverse, however, are the ladies of the Republican party. Names like Michelle Malkin, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Michele Bachmann, Megyn Kelly, and S. E. Cupp are easily recognized ... and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I cannot Google "Republican female leaders" and create enough filters that will produce less than one hundred thousand entries, each bearing names I consider to be recognizable by those on both sides of the aisle.
Some might say the only reason I am more familiar with names of ladies within my own party is that we are usually more familiar with our own side, so to be truly fair and balanced I decided to call one of my outspoken Democrat friends and ask her opinion about some of the leading ladies on the Democratic side.
Enter a friend of mine who has grown up in politics, with her father elected to serve in local office for many years of her life. She and I share pretty much the same social circles, same place in life, and at one point even the same Sunday school class. However, we find ourselves on opposite sides of the political spectrum. She and I have a mutual respect for each other and our political beliefs, and rather than focusing on the obvious differences, any political discussion we have either ends in finding a source of common ground or we just don't agree. I value her honesty, and while I strongly disagree with many of her stances on social issues, her insight into the justification allows me to realize where the weaknesses exist on both sides of the argument. Her answers did not surprise me; however, they did confirm one of my suspicions: Republican women like to see other Republican women use their voices to gain the spotlight on issues. Democratic women would rather see the issue be in the spotlight based on its own merits.
For some reason, those in the Conservative movement—but especially Conservative females—don't like to stand alone. We like to know that we have somebody on our left and somebody on our right fighting and saying the same thing we are. We are emboldened even further when we see a female highlighting issues and stating her opinion on the national scene. We can see the arrows the Left is going to throw and then predict how the intensity of the attack will be on our own stage.
It appears that whenever Conservative women actively protest a decision that goes against their principles and values, they will more than likely—and quickly—become a target for assault by the Left, both personally as well as through mainstream-—media mockery. Our movement as a whole is a very respectful movement, and finding the right balance of pushing the issue while not disturbing the innocent is extremely difficult.
Identity Crisis
We are the movement of nice. The severity of our protest goes to the extent of tying up traffic within a five-mile radius of a Chick-fil-A or crashing a cable network's website because we sent e-mails in support of Grandpa Phil. We don't riot or burn symbols of our nation in protest. In fact, most of our rallies look more like large church gatherings where you wear either a collared shirt or a patriotic T-shirt.
Overwhelmingly, I believe it is safe to say Conservatives believe in a safety-in-numbers strategy. However, the problem is that the Left is not afraid to stand alone and proclaim their opinion. They are not afraid to get in your face and scream, because their movement is not a movement based on respect and, more importantly, longevity. The more obnoxious the commotion they make and the chaos that follows, the higher in rank the instigator is lifted. However, a Liberal's life in the public spotlight is often short-lived.
This is why Democratic women who rise to be recognized as household names are rare. They are encouraged to act with extreme behavior, and once they draw attention to the topic, they fade into the background. The media can then label the person as crazy but not the movement. The topic and the Progressive angle are now in the spotlight for as long as the mainstream media thinks it can spin it to demonize those on the Right. There is no better example of this than antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed by enemy action in the Iraq War. Her protests were constantly the topic of the evening news in 2005 as she created a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
While most antiwar protests across the country were peaceful and sprinkled with small examples of craziness, almost every action or word spoken by Sheehan was truly done as a shameless PR stunt. In August 2005, Sheehan demanded a second meeting with President Bush, but when it was refused she told members of Veterans for Peace, "I'm gonna say, 'And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for.' And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy, I'm gonna say, 'Bull—. You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich ... You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.'"2 She also vowed not to pay her federal income tax for 2004 because that was the year her son was killed.
Cindy Sheehan continued her screaming and rants; however, after her antiwar message was brought to the forefront of most political discussions because of her four-week campout, her name disappeared from the news almost as quickly as it emerged. Over the next few years very little attention was given to Sheehan's congressional run against Nancy Pelosi, the IRS suing her for tax evasion, her various arrests outside of key government buildings like the White House and the UN, and even her current bid for governor of California barely gained a headline or even attention from a Left-wing newspaper editor. The mainstream media and the Democrats were done with Cindy, as any further attention to her would only expose the idiocy of those within their movement.
On the other hand, very rarely do you find a Republican spokeswoman on an issue disappear once her topic has passed the news cycle. Sarah Palin is a great example of this. Palin became a household name almost overnight when she was selected as Senator John McCain's running mate in 2008. However, after their defeat, the former governor of Alaska has continued to be at the front of most controversial issues, usually representing the most conservative viewpoint on that topic. Headlining many Conservative conferences, about to release her fourth bestseller, and signed for a second contract as a Fox News contributor, former Governor Palin is probably the most recognized name of all the Conservative women, and she is far from being ready to fade into the sunset.
Why, then, do Democrats continually get to label themselves the party for women if they so quickly bury the majority of their own? Even history shows that women should primarily find themselves deep in the trenches of the Republican Party. The founding mothers of the women's movement—Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton—were Republicans, and the first suffragettes were seated as delegates in 1870 at the Massachusetts Republican State Convention.
Up until the 92nd Congress (1971–73), women elected to Congress were fairly balanced between both parties. The status quo was kept for fifty years until this time when the distribution went from six Democratic female representatives to five Republican female representatives, to eleven Democratic to four Republican female representatives. Since then only twice in the early eighties have Republican women been able to outnumber their Democratic counterparts, and today we are outnumbered seventy-six to twenty-three. Ouch!
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Roar by Scottie Nell Hughes. Copyright © 2014 Scottie Nell Hughes. Excerpted by permission of WORTHY PUBLISHING.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.