<![CDATA[Against All Enemies]]>

false <![CDATA[Against All Enemies]]>

88667

Few political memoirs have made such a dramatic entrance as that by Richard A. Clarke. During the week of the initial publication of Against All Enemies, Clarke was featured on 60 Minutes, testified before the 9/11 commission, and touched off a raging controversy over how the presidential administration handled the threat of terrorism and the post-9/11 geopolitical landscape. Clarke, a veteran Washington insider who had advised presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, dissects each man's approach to terrorism but levels the harshest criticism at the latter Bush and his advisors who, Clarke asserts, failed to take terrorism and Al-Qaeda seriously. Clarke details how, in light of mounting intelligence of the danger Al-Qaeda presented, his urgent requests to move terrorism up the list of priorities in the early days of the administration were met with apathy and procrastination and how, after the attacks took place, Bush and key figures such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney turned their attention almost immediately to Iraq, a nation not involved in the attacks. Against All Enemies takes the reader inside the Beltway beginning with the Reagan administration, who failed to retaliate against the 1982 Beirut bombings, fueling the perception around the world that the United States was vulnerable to such attacks. Terrorism becomes a growing but largely ignored threat under the first President Bush, whom Clarke cites for his failure to eliminate Saddam Hussein, thereby necessitating a continued American presence in Saudi Arabia that further inflamed anti-American sentiment. Clinton, according to Clarke, understood the gravity of the situation and became increasingly obsessed with stopping Al-Qaeda. He had developed workable plans but was hamstrung by political infighting and the sex scandal that led to his impeachment. But Bush and his advisers, Clarke says, didn't get it before 9/11 and they didn't get it after, taking a unilateral approach that seemed destined to lead to more attacks on Americans and American interests around the world. Clarke's inside accounts of what happens in the corridors of power are fascinating and the book, written in a compelling, highly readable style, at times almost seems like a fiction thriller. But the threat of terrorism and the consequences of Bush's approach to it feel very sobering and very real. --John Moe Trivia -The princess Maxima of the Netherlands was photographed holding the book on a beach vacation

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Against All Enemies

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4 0 false false Sat May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Fri Jan 16 07:49:57 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 07:52:42 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Jul 19 12:15:26 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 19 12:15:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 10 06:16:18 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 06:22:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Oct 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 11 08:49:30 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 08:54:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Nov 03 21:08:45 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 03 21:17:18 -0800 2008
I ...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Nov 02 15:43:34 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 02 15:43:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Oct 28 13:05:58 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 13:34:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Oct 26 22:24:42 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 26 22:25:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 13 22:25:45 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 13 22:42:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Oct 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 12:38:49 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 08 14:22:08 -0700 2008
I am always wary of the Red Sox-Yankees mentality in all political memoirs these days, and Clarke certainly has VERY strong opinions (Clinton very good, Bush VERY bad)... but i just learned way too much reading this to dismiss him as too biased.

...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Mar 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jul 11 18:43:57 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 06 19:58:06 -0800 2009 +++++
While I wouldn't give the book 5 stars because of the writing style or cleverness of language, ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 06 15:26:08 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 15:02:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Apr 29 13:28:22 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 21:16:27 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 26 10:10:16 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 22 21:28:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Sep 16 23:20:43 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 17 15:54:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Tue Aug 07 00:23:40 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 07 00:30:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Jul 25 16:57:31 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 09 21:52:01 -0800 2007
I purposely chose to avoid reading this book for quite a time after it came out, as I generally dislike the "timely" p...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 09 17:49:02 -0700 2007 Fri May 18 10:51:47 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Feb 21 09:48:06 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 21 10:00:22 -0800 2009 thejefffariasshow.com)said this "an amazing book--the first 50 pages read like a Ludlum novel..it's the morning of 9/11 and Clarke's in the bunker of the White House taking us moment by moment thru what what going on--"
What I learned is that the Bush Crime Family was dete...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Mon Jun 29 03:11:44 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 03:11:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=88667