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Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror
 | Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror Richard A. Clarke Date: 22 March, 2004 — $16.20 — Book Rating: |
If you want a great 9/11 story, Clarke's got one for you. The first chapter of this book reads like a Tom Clancy thriller: Clarke and his counter-terrorism team coordinate the response to terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as the last hijacked airliner looms closer to it's target - The White House!.
If you want a story of this country's counter-terrorism efforts for the last twenty five years, there's really no one more qualified than Clarke to tell it. Since the mid-nineties he has been at the nexus of this country's efforts to hunt down, deter, and kill terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. He's worked in various capacities in several administrations, and so has a unique viewpoint on the issue.
The book is really an indictment of the Bush administration's pre-9/11 dismissal of terrorists as a credible threat, and their lack of focus afterwards. If you're interested in how we got to where we are, and what we're doing about it, this book is a must read. If you're a Republican and can't bring yourself to buy the book, borrow it or check it out from the library. Despite all the noise now, George W. Bush will be known to history as the President who dropped the ball on terrorism.
But the book is not just a tale of terror. Clarke offers a clear plan to overhaul our current intelligence systems, counter-terrorism planning, and response mechanisms. He lays out a plan to eliminate our vulnerabilities to terrorism, to create a global partnership with the aim of shaping an alternative to the fundamentalist brand of Islam which promotes terrorism, and to work closely with other nations ripping up the roots of al Qaeda-like terrorism.
It's not easy to say anything new about a book that has received so much media attention. You've probably already read it. If you haven't, it's probably because you don't want to. But you should.
I have just finished this book, and i have been urging friends to read it,
if anything, the first chapter at least. You are right, it reads very
exciting and i couldn't put it down until Chapter2. As a non-American
reading it, the one thing that struct me was just how much CNN plays into
the politics of the White House. Clarke tells a number of stories where
CNN reporters where telling them things before CIA operatives where.
Scary? I think so!
Another thing I found interesting was his sadness regarding Clinton and the whole Monica affair. It ruined a perfectly good presidency in his view. Also noted that he refers to Bush's style of problem solving is to boil it down to 'bumper sticker' simplicity. Which dealing with world politics isn't always that easy.
An interesting book, and even if you were to say only 50% was true; then its a scary 50%