Rating: 
Summary: Read the Book!
Review: Reviews on Amazon.com: after reading about 20 reviews, my conclusion is that at least half of the 'reviewers' haven't read the book - their rantings are merely an expression of their pre-conceived opinions.
The first 40 pages of the book give a very exciting minute-by-minute account of what the Government in Washington did immediately after the first hijacked airliner struck 1 World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th.
The following chapters cover the author's experiences in trying to push anti-terrorist measures to the forefront of the Government's agenda during his career in the Reagan, Bush senior, Clinton, and George W Bush Administrations. Clarke describes the obstacles he encountered in trying to move the various bureaucracies, and frustrations in getting those agencies to move beyond their entrenched habits and thought patterns. To a person such as myself (this reviewer) who has worked in Government bureaucracy (in an entirely different area), Clarke's accounts are very, very believable.
(The first, reflexive priority of any Governmental agency is: WE MUST DEFEND OUR TURF, so that we keep our jobs. Second: AVOID LOOKING BAD. 'Doing the best thing' or 'recommend the best policy' are further down the line. This is not a condemnation of government - it's an expression of everyday human nature, found in the business world also).
Clarke categorically states that no connection was ever established between Saddam Hussein's Iraq regime and the 9/11 attackers. In the final chapters, Clarke states his view that the invasion of Iraq, which President Bush has justified as a counter-attack against terrorism, is a diversion which has not made the US any safer. Popular support for the US has plummeted both in Europe and in the Moslem world.
Clarke believes that the US invasion of a Moslem country, Iraq, in fact facilitates recruitment for El Quaeda.
Clarke's criticism of the Bush Administration's Iraq war, that it detracts from the war on terror instead of contributing to it, has obviously enraged the Bush Administration and its supporters. It's a valid question to debate. But instead of debating it, the Bush Administration is making it a priority to attack Clarke personally.
This reviewer sides with Clarke in believing that the United States is safer when people throughout the world have a favorable opinion of the US. The Bush Administration has been a conspicuous failure in this area. Military force is a poor antidote to widespread popular hostility.
Most important: read this book.
(and make your own judgement).
Rating:
Summary: Courageous Patriotic American
Review: The sliming of Clarke by several non-reviewers is just a small sample of the slander and character assassination he has been subjected to for having the courage to blow the whistle on the Bush administration's incompetent handling of the war on terror.In writing this book Clarke has shown tremendous courage. He was a member of the Bush administration and therefore knows from firsthand experience that anyone who has the audacity to criticise it will be subjected to a systematic program of slander, sliming and character assassination Clarke must love his country very much in order to reveal the truth about the Bush admisistration's bungling of the war on terrorism, knowing the grief that he would be subjecting himself to, so that the American people can know the truth of what really happened
Rating:
Summary: Yes it was a conspiracy and now we know!
Review: "George W. Bush is a liar. He has lied large and small, directly and by omission. He has mugged the truth-not merely in honest error, but deliberately, consistently, and repeatedly," David Corn; Washington editor for the Nation. "All American presidents have lied, but George W. Bush has relentlessly abused the truth. In this scathing indictment of the president and his inner circle, Clarke, reveals and examines the deceptions at the heart of the Bush presidency. In a stunning work Clarke details and substantiates the many times the Bush administration has knowingly and intentionally misled the American public to advance its own interests and agenda, including: * Brazenly mischaracterizing intelligence and resorting to deceptive arguments to whip up public support for war with Iraq.
* Misrepresenting the provisions and effects of the president's supersized tax cuts * Offering misleading explanations- instead of telling the full truth - about the 9/11 attacks
* Lying about connections to corporate crooks * Presenting deceptive and disingenuous claims to sell controversial policies on the environment, stem cell research, missile defense, Social Security, white-collar crime, abortion, energy, and other crucial issues
* Running a truth-defying, down-and-dirty campaign during the 2000 presidential contest and recount drama * Presidential 'photo ops' like landing on a carrier, and saying 'I support our troops,' when in fact this administration has cut pay and allowances for service men and combatant soldiers. This president has not gone to a 'single' soldiers funeral and has cut substantial operating funds from the Veterans Administration. This book is not a partisan whine-it is instead a carefully constructed, fact-based account that clearly denotes how Bush has relied on deception-from the campaign trail to the Oval Office-to win political and policy battles BY ANY MEANS!" If you like conspiracy books Here are a few. Having read the TOP books in the Government Cover-up Genre; "Unconventional Flying Objects" (NASA UFO Investigator for 30 years) by the scientist Dr. Paul Hill; my FAVORITE is "Alien Rapture" by Brad Steiger and Edgar Fouche (Top Secret Black Programs Insider) - (Great fiction-soon to be a movie); "Alien Agenda" by the best selling author of 'Crossfire' Jim Marrs (Best reference on UFOlogy); and "The Day After Roswell," by Colonel Corso - I'd say these books are a MUST READ also!
Rating:
Summary: Bush Can't Take The Heat
Review: ....So get out of the Whitehouse. Richard Clarke is a much needed wake up call to Americans who care about national security before election year politics. This is an honest account of how Bush failed the American people before 9/11, which Bush has nearly admitted himself when he stated in Bob Woodward's book "I did not consider Al Qaeda an ugent threat" before 9/11. These are Bush's OWN WORDS!!! Clarke merely points out the truth and goes on to describe how the war in Iraq has been a disaster(nearly 600 soldiers killed and counting) and has hurt the war on terrorism. The TRUTH HURTS, but it must be said.
Rating:
Summary: revealing...and utterly frightening
Review: This no Woodward and Bernstein tour-de-force, but a first-hand account by someone who served as a terrorist expert in four administrations. What is terrrifying is his description of a superpower that no longer cares about the costs and consequences of military action, justified or not, launched at any point on the globe. And Clarke's book is only the first chapter in this unraveling tale. Now that he and Congressional leaders of both parties are demanding that Clarke's memos to the various administrations be declassified, we may find out more than we may ever want to know.
Rating:
Summary: reality check
Review: Great first person account of the efforts of the US against terrorism (or lack as the case may be prior to 9/11). The first chapter is amazing, it reads like a Tom Clancy novel. Clear and heart stopping account of 9/11 (the truth is stranger than fiction!). It is clear that Clarke deeply feels and believes the account he gives (he lost at least one close friend on 9/11, ironically a FBI agent who had resigned out of frustration over the lack of action against bin Laden). Really not a controversial book in the sense that anyone who has been paying attention to the Bush administration efforts prior to 9/11. Clarke is fairly hawkish on on US response/intervention abroad. What he reveals about the Bush II's White House is relatively well known {people have short memories, prior to 9/11 the White House was clealy fixaited on missile defense, Iraq, and to a much lesser extent state sponsured terrorism). I doubt GW or Rice ever heard of Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda before GW became president. The key Bush II advisors (Rice, Wolfowitz, Hadley, Rumsfeld, Cheney) clearly seemed to believe that Clinton had either dreamed up or overstated the threat of bin Laden to distract people away from the Monica L. scandal. Pretty clear from the book that they mostly only see events through the narrow lens of their political bias. Anyway, the book is a must for anyone who is interested in 9/11 or the current controversy. After reading the book, you will notice that for the most part, none of the facts revealed are being contradicted by anyone--basically because they are mostly true which is why the White House is reduced to just attacking Clarke (as the did with Secretary Paul O'Neill and ambassador Wilson). Basically its clear that Clarke can no longer stand the BS of the Bush taking credit for what he in reality failed at (politics at its best), and this is Clarke's way of setting the record straight. buy the book and decide for yourself.... La Jolla, CA 3/28/04
Rating:
Summary: Bush Terror
Review: I've only read the first 80 pages or so. I'm dumfounded that so many reviewers see this as a single star. Obviously they aren't open-minded about the substance within this book. The first chapter provides an intriguing view of the US government after the 9/11 attack. Even if you disagree with Clarke, it is fascinating. Clarke has the background to put forth a view on a critical topic. It scares me that so many reviewers are closed minded about this book.[...]
Rating:
Summary: Critical New Info Presented In This Review
Review: There is some disturbing information that needs to be presented here. Apart from Richard Clark's wonderful work, I am, as a concerned democrat, distressed by the facts obtained in a research mission I undertook to our nation's capital in July of last year. Those of you having visited our nation's congressional offices may have noticed that the bathrooms are segmented by political party. I did a survey of the stalls in both the democratic and republican bathrooms. I have to tell you -- the democrats don't flush 23% more of the time than the republicans. I'm talking #2 here! What does this mean for the future of our party? Is this yet another vast right wing conspiracy orchestrated by plumbers?
Rating: 
Summary: Should be called ' The 'macho bureaucrat'
Review: You cannot take this book seriously. The author clearly has an agenda which is his dislike of the current administration coupled with an overwelming love of himself. In this dreadful tome he puts himself at center stage of the 9/11 crisis and other terrorist incidents going back to 1992. When things go well
Mr Clarke modestly accepts responsibility when they don't its because nobody heeds his advice. Supporters of the author use his own book to back support their case (a circular argument) and ignore the ample contadictory evidence. As a measure of the Richard Clarke look to the correspondence released by Congressman Shays to the 9/11 commission. It is nothing short of disgraceful the way he hijacked the 9/11 commission to promote this dreadful book and to put himself center stage yet again.
Rating: 
Summary: Morons for Bush
Review: Are you forgetting who lied about WMD you goose stepping nitwits? Great book with interesting insights from an expert in the field, despite all the Bush hitmen trying to ruin his reputation. Maybe the other critics on the site should read it before making judgments based on Fox News reports.
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