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Summary: RE: Work of Fiction
Review: "Clarke has been heavily discredited this week as being untruthful. He has conflicts in his testimony and has given opposite accounts of what he has written in his book. He had worked for the Clinton Whitehouse for 8 years of inaction on terrorism. They did nothing in 1993 during the first WTC strike; did nothing when the USS cole was bombed; did nothing when after the US embassy bombing; refused to take Osama Bin Laden when he was offered up by Sudan; gutted the military and the CIA....and he has problems with Bush's first 8 months in office? This is the man who told reporters while he was working in the white house, before he was fired and before 9/11, that Bush's directive was to "stop swatting at flies" and go after the terrorists. Now Clarke changes his tune while alligned with the Kerry campaign. This book should be labeled as fiction. It is nothing more than partisan political propaganda."No it's NOT! How many folks - Republicans, yet, have to come out and say the same thing? First was John DiIulio, then Paul O'Neill, now Clarke - all saying the same thing, like a broken record. The white house is full of radical ideologues who are harming the country. They are fiscally malfeasant, were predisposed to war with Iraq - not surprising given the strong neoconservative influence and their agenda, spelled out in the late 90's in the Project for a New American Century. Keep listening to Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage and buying into it. This administration is ruining this country. As for Clarke, he has more than adequately addressed the alleged inconsistencies - which are both weak (like his resignation letter) and few, given that the whole right-wing machine is scrutinizing every statement and correspondence on the tax-payer dole. Want to complain about something? Why not focus on why Condoleeza Rice steadfastly refuses to testify under oath in front of the 9/11 commission?
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Summary: CNN: "Clarke...lied under oath." Typical Democrat!
Review: And look at how many five star reviews support this guy! All the more reason why we need Bush for FOUR MORE YEARS!!!! Liars and adulturers have no place in the White House.
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Summary: In Hindsight....
Review: I almost bought the book yesterday after browsing through it at a local bookstore but in hindsight had to wonder why Clarke left out that 911 would never have happened if only Clinton would have acted and taken out bin Laden when he had the chance. No doubt Clarke is trying to cover up for Clinton and for himself. If you have lost friends or family in 911, blame Clinton and Clarke. Thank God we had a responsible leader like GWBII in office at the time of 911. If Clinton had been President at that time, no doubt he would have had more pressing things to do than worry about national security. Thank you GWBII. Clinton and Clarke: you guys are SLIME!
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Summary: Can Clarke go to jail for lying under oath???
Review: Apparently Clarke's prior association with Bill Clinton has rubbed off....both like to lie under oath. Clinton got away with it, but will Clarke? I hope not.
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Summary: Against All Enemies
Review: Excellent book but in order to understand whole situation as well as evidence the book is accurate you should also read
House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger and What Price
Loyalty by Ron Suskind.
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Summary: Great book
Review: I just received the book and could not put it down. I was quite surprised at how clear and concise the man is. Also,I was pleased at his humility. He has accomplished so much for our country, and I think he is one of the great patriots of our time. I deeply appreciate the courage he has to write this book. 9/11 is not something this country can hide under the rug. It happened and must never happen again. Why don't the republicans stop their harrassment of this author and try to learn from their mistakes. I thank you Mr. Clarke for writing a honest book that has helped to clear up the shroud of mystery that the present administration seems so determined to keep. We are Americans and we have a constitutional right to understand why this tragedy happened. Every American should read this book.
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Summary: Really Fair and Balanced!!!!
Review: Richard A. Clarke was America's senior counter terrorism expert during four Administrations, and his memoir provides a rare eyewitness account of the events of the 1980s and 1990s which led up to 9/11. Unlike most purported histories of the period which have been published in recent months, Clarke does not have an ideological axe to grind. He merely wants to tell the truth as he saw it. As such, this book will be an important resource for many years to come. Clarke is that now rare individual who can put principle above politics. Its pretty obvious that he is a Republican, but he provides an honest assessment of the Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, and GW Bush Administrations and their successes and failures in dealing with terrorism. Each of the first three Presidencies comes in for criticism as well as blame. The only Administration which failed utterly, in his view, is the present one, and he marshalls an impressive array of evidence to support his stand. From the first few pages, which describe the scramble in the White House as 9/11 unfolded, through the entire book, Clarke points out the failures of Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Company to come to grips with the danger Al Qaeda presented and then to deal effectively with the menace once it had been thrust in their faces. The most heartfelt sections deal with the bizarre decision to use 9/11 as a pretext to move against Iraq in defiance of all the evidence Clarke had to present. Clarke's descriptions of the Bush team's single minded determination to go after Saddam rather than Al Qaeda and other missteps ought to be major campaign topics this fall. Richard A. Clarke is a good man and a good American. It is to be hoped that after next January 20th he will have the chance to serve yet another Administration. He and the country deserve much better than what we have now.
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Summary: Very powerful
Review: This is a very powerful book. I'm glad I read it. It has opened my eyes to many things that I was not aware of before. Sometimes we all get too busy in our lives to stop and focus on what is taking place in our Country. I am so glad that Richard Clarke wrote this book as honestly and credibly as he has done. It is a true reflection on just how much strength and character this man has. He has been taking a tremendous amount of criticism from many of his fellow Republicans, all because he wanted to do the right thing. They will do whatever it takes to try to smear him. What they fail to realize is, Richard Clarke has the facts on his side and no matter how hard his critics try to "yell and smear" away the facts, they just can't. They cannot undue what has already been done. 911 was a horrible day for America and to take that day and start twisting the facts about it, is not only very wrong, but also very shameful! This book simply spells out all of the facts, as harsh as some of them can be. I feel that Richard Clarke is what a TRUE American hero should be. It is very refreshing to see that at least Richard Clarke takes responsibility and apologizes for all of his mistakes. He has guts, he has integrity, he has unbelievable strength & character and above all, he has a CONSCIENCE! It would be really nice if our elected leaders had the same. Then, maybe us, as Americans can get back what we have lost under this current Administration....and that is HOPE for a better future! With George Bush as President, many Americans have lost hope. When you lose hope, you pretty much have lost everything. Very sad indeed! When you can get hope back, you then have a true sense of what freedom is!
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Summary: How To Read Richard Clarke: Non-Partisan Lessons
Review: The aim of this review is to provide a non-partisan summary of Mr. Clarke's text. To be sure, Mr. Clarke is critical of the Bush Administration -- that much is clear. His criticism of the Administration is that it paid insufficient attention to terrorism prior to 9/11, and then fought a war with Iraq that diverted resources from the war on terror, increased the probability of terrorist action against the U.S. by unintentionally generating new Arab recruits to the war on terror and adversely affected the ability of our military by "over-stretching" it. But his thesis, and the scope of the book, is larger than his criticism of the Bush Administration. Clarke's central point is that our difficulties with fighting terrorism stem from a deadly combination of historical mis-steps, all arguably unintentional, and stubborn, systematic institutional failings. The book itself starts with a fast-paced, readable account of September 11th, and the environment within the White House on that day, and the days immediately following. One can't help being glued to this account. Clarks then shifts to the larger picture: the origins of our difficulties with those in the Arab world that pursue terrorism. That origin, Clarke finds, was in the Reagan Administration. Clarke applauds Reagan's strategy for ending the Cold War, including the successful effort in Afghanistan, but he notes that the strategy had unintended consequences that had made the future more difficult. Specifically, there was an over-reliance on Pakistan and a corresponding inability to influence Afghanistan directly, even if we had shown the will to do so, which sadly, he claims, we did not (p. 52-53). Second, while Clarke supported the decision not to "go to Baghdad" in the first Gulf War, he believes we seriously mis-calculated in not defending at all adequately the Kurds and the Shia (p. 66). Our reputation in the Arab world suffered because of it. Even if one disagrees with Clarke on his assessment of these and other events, Clarke argues that there are still systematic problems that inhibit Washington's ability to deal with terrorism, and much of the book is focused on those contextual problems. What he finds is an environment in Washington that, in many respects, works against the ability to combat and/or prevent terrorism. For example, two "big hurdles" to the creation of new and effective security measures are (1) the left-right political opposition manifested in the combined NRA/ACLU opposition to legislation or other such measures and; (2) the FBI's objective to retain its existing primacy in domestic security (p. 255). Not surprisingly, personalities matter enormously and they can be an obstacle -- as Treasury Secretary Rubin was less amenable to efforts to view existing law as enabling him to pursue terrorist funding (pursue at a level Clarke would find satisfactory). His successor, Larry Summers, was much more flexible. Partisanship can be a problem during transitions because an in-coming Administration can be dis-inclined to accept initiatives begun by a prior Administration of the opposing party (pp. 195-196). Other such institutional shortcomings cripple the nation's ability to deal adequately with terrorism. Unfortunately, there is even a bigger problem. This problem may not be unique to America, but we have paid dearly for it. Clarke is very good at proposing counter-factuals, or in Niall Ferguson's words, "virtual history" questions. He poses the following: If we had stopped 9/11, would that have prompted us to take the measures necessary to stop any future terrorist acts in the U.S. of comparable magnitude? His answer is sobering: "At some point there would probably still have been a horrific attack that would have required the U.S. to respond massively to eliminate Al Qaeda and its network...(p. 238). "Al Qaeda had emerged from the soil after the Cold War like some long dormant plague, it was on a path of its own, and it would not be swayed. And America, alas, seems only to respond well to disasters, to be undistracted by warnings." American waits for, and appears to need the "awful calamity" to validate the warning signals.
I gave this book 5 stars because, whatever one thinks of Clarke within he partisan debate, there are powerful lessons for both parties, and for the country in general, in his forceful text. With this book, as in numerous other instances, as least as far as I can tell, Mr. Richard Clarke has served his country well.
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Summary: Stunning First Chapter
Review: Reading the first chapter of this book was like reading a Tom Clancy novel; the difference being that Clancy writes fiction and Clarke writes fact. After almost three years, we are now finding out that Clarke was essentially running the country on September 11, 2001. I thought I'd be totally bored by this book; that it would be just another government official telling his story. It's actually quite an amazing read.
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