Imagine being a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, in command of an eight-man team in a hidden position deep inside Iraq during the Gulf War. The ground war is about to start, and your mission is to observe a nearby highway for troop movements that might threaten the 18th Airborne Corps, soon to be the left flank unit in a wide envelopment of Iraqi ground forces as part of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf’s “Hail Mary” plan.

But your intelligence briefing wasn’t quite accurate, and the relatively deserted farming area you expected to find turns out to be densely populated.

Then, one of your soldiers reports that he was looking out through his peephole when some children looked in and saw him, in camouflage, looking back at them. The children  including two girls about 7 and 8  ran off, toward a nearby village. Your soldiers are expert marksmen, and they carry silenced submachine guns and pistols.

What do you do now?

This is among the accounts of U.S. Special Forces operations in “Shadow Warriors: Inside the Special Forces” by Tom Clancy, with Gen. Carl Stiner (Putnam, 548 pages, $29.95).

The book includes chapters on operations by the Office of Strategic Services in occupied France in World War II and by Army Special Forces in Vietnam, but the focus is on more recent years, including the bureaucratic battles that finally led to the creation of the U.S. Special Operations Command.

The command was formed in response to debacles such as the failed attempt to rescue the American hostages in Iran during the Carter administration. It is responsible for the readiness of all U.S. special operations forces, including Navy SEALs, Army Rangers and Green Berets.

Stiner, now retired, was commanding general of Special Operations Command from 1990 to 1993. He has a long background in special operations and was involved in the U.S. invasions of Grenada and Panama and the response to the terrorist highjacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro.

His descriptions of the planning for those and other operations and his examples of the high quality of soldiers, sailors and airmen that America continues to produce may be enlightening  and reassuring  to readers without firsthand military experience. His accounts of dealing with officially friendly Allied and Middle Eastern governments also may be enlightening  though less reassuring.

Army Warrant Officer Richard Balwanz faced his own moment of truth deep inside Iraq, seeing the backs of fleeing children.

“I have a Christian background,” he said. “I had children of my own about that age. It just wasn’t in me to shoot children. Whatever happened to us, I was willing to accept that.”

Later that day, Balwanz also chose not to fire on villagers who came to investigate. An Iraqi infantry company of about 100 soldiers arrived later. The ground war had started by then. The Iraqis knew it, but the Americans didn’t.

After a lengthy battle, Balwanz and his team held out until nightfall, when they were able to call in air support and were withdrawn by helicopter.