Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror

Additional Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror Information

"The [Bush] administration has squandered the opportunity to eliminate al Qaeda....A new al Qaeda has emerged and is growing stronger, in part because of our own actions and inactions. It is in many ways a tougher opponent than the original threat we faced before September 11, and we are not doing what is necessary to make America safe from that threat."

No one has more authority to make that claim than Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The one person who knows more about Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda than anyone else in this country, he has devoted two decades of his professional life to combating terrorism. Richard Clarke served seven presidents and worked inside the White House for George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush until he resigned in March 2003. He knows, better than anyone, the hidden successes and failures of the Clinton years. He knows, better than anyone, why we failed to prevent 9/11. He knows, better than anyone, how President Bush reacted to the attack and what happened behind the scenes in the days that followed. He knows whether or not Iraq presented a terrorist threat to the United States and whether there were hidden costs to the invasion of that country.

Most disturbing of all are Clarke's revelations about the Bush administration's lack of interest in al Qaeda prior to September 11. From the moment the Bush team took office and decided to retain Clarke in his post as the counterterrorism czar, Clarke tried to persuade them to take al Qaeda as seriously as had Bill Clinton. For months, he was denied the opportunity even to make his case to Bush. He encountered key officials who gave the impression that they had never heard of al Qaeda; who focused incessantly on Iraq; who even advocated long-discredited conspiracy theories about Saddam's involvement in previous attacks on the United States.

Clarke was the nation's crisis manager on 9/11, running the Situation Room -- a scene described here for the first time -- and then watched in dismay at what followed. After ignoring existing plans to attack al Qaeda when he first took office, George Bush made disastrous decisions when he finally did pay attention. Coming from a man known as one of the hard-liners against terrorists, Against All Enemies is both a powerful history of our two-decades-long confrontation with terrorism and a searing indictment of the current administration.

What Customers Say About Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror:

This book is also a fascinating account of the very partisan, odd behaviors of the Neo-con culture and how its ideology "distracted" their leaders from the task at hand to protect their country. This remarkable book is a must read for any US citizen worthy of that name, courageous enough to "face the music". I would also Highly recommend the stunning, conscienscious work of James Ridgeway; "The 5 unanswered questions about 9/11"- What the 9/11 commission report failed to tell us- You will see how this clear headed analysis dovetails with Mr Clark's observations and experiences. ( And how they distracted Clinton with a sex scandal during a crucial phase of his determined hunt for Bin Laden). This is first hand account from the front lines of US Counter terrorism.Mr. Clark is the only decent figure to come clean to the American citizens and who apologized publicly for the dismal failure(s) of the Bush regime.

Everyone, especially people of all political parties, needs to read this book to learn more about what the botched War on Terror has cost us in terms of dollars, global standing, lives, etc.If I could, I would give Clarke's great read six stars. Clarke is as skilled as they come when it comes to national security. Highly recommend. Anyone wanting to educate themselves on the War on Terror (and specifically al Quaida and their history) need look no further. This book is like a treatise on global terrorism.

He shows himself to be nothing more than a boot licking lackey of the Democratic machine.It is hard to absorb much from this book trying to wade through Clarke's self-serving agenda. It is clear to the reader that Richard Clarke feebly attempts to distance himself from the reality that it was his job to counter terror, and he countered nothing.

Worse, that reader will come away realizing that the vision Clarke laid out in 2003 and 2004 is almost exactly what the Islamic fundamentalists have managed to accomplish. 2 superpower in a ten-year war in Afghanistan. His orientation is simply, "Here's what happened; and here's what resulted from it, for better or for worse." Republican and Democratic administrations, the CIA, the FBI, the Departments of Defense and State are all praised and blamed equally. A group of Islamic fundamentalists have just defeated the world's No.

The same Islamic fundamentalists figure they can accomplish the same thing with the No. This is not a work of fiction. And it is not for the squeamish. Read it at your own risk. It is 1990. Bush 41 is President. =1= superpower.In a hair-raising 300 pages that read like a Tom Clancy novel, but which in fact are the pages of =history= book, 30-year National Security Council veteran and National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism for Presidents Clinton and Bush 43, Richard Clarke, details why - and shows us =how= - Osama bin Laden and the rest are doing so. He is no blamer.

He ran the entire United States government from the command center in a nearly empty White House for 30 hours on September 11 and 12, 2001. The Middle East is =not= Vietnam redux. But for your sake as an informed voter, do =read= it. The reader may also come away with a bad case of anxiety. Published in 2004, =Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror= is the single most compelling and disturbing spellbinder I have encountered since Morris and Denton's =The Money and The Power=. It is much, =much= worse.

Mikhail Gorbachev is Premier of the Soviet Union. The reader - if he can put the book down every now and again to get some sleep - will almost surely come away with a detailed grasp of the entire epic that has transpired since the Shah of Iran was deposed by the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini in 1979. He is a can-do pragmatist. A year later, the Soviet Union collapses. While the implications of the latter book are =very= disturbing; the implications of the former are downright horrifying.Clarke is no ideologue.

Yes. After 9/11, they wanted the evidence to lead to Iraq and that's what the CIA ended up giving them. Overall and unfortunately, I don't think this is a book to get an accurate account of circa 9/11. Clarke take the opportunity in this book to make sure we know that he was one of the lone people trying to stop terrorism pre-9/11. But then again I wouldn't trust a favorable-to-Bush account either. The main focus seemed to be Iraq from the get-go. Never trust people in government and politics is a good rule of thumb.

I don't know. Evidently Clinton could do no wrong. Also, Clarke defends nearly all of the decisions during the Clinton years - for instance, we could have probably gotten or killed Bin Laden but didn't because it was too dangerous. Apparently, he opinions on the Bush Administration's action on Al Qaeda has not been entirely consistent. He is not critical at all of Clinton's efforts and paints Clinton as one who 'got it'.

A little self-serving. From other accounts, I can probably believe Clarke's description of how the Iraq War began.Clarke's adoration of Clinton is not discreet. Clarke paints a picture of Bush's advisors and cabinet being hardly interested in terrorism before 9/11. Can this guy be trusted. However the Bush administration's pre-9/11 terror prevention was obviously lacking.