Popov: It went much as I had expected. They were foolish—really rather amateurish, despite all the training… — Tom Clancy

"Bear, this is Six," Clark called on the radio.

"Bear copies, Six, over."

"We execute in five minutes."

"Roger that, we party in five."

They were either very brave or very foolish to go to that country, Popov thought. [...] Bokassa had killed his way to the top, as had so many African chiefs of state, before dying, remarkably, of natural causes—so the papers said, anyway, you could never really be sure, could you?

Henriksen: The commander on the scene makes that decision, based on his training, experience, and expertise. Then, Henriksen didn't go on, people like you second-guess the hell out of him for the next couple weeks.