Rating: 
Summary: Worthy of Voltaire
Review: Evil will end. Yeah, that's the ticket! Like Francis Fukuyama's the End of History and the Last Man, An End to Evil presupposes a fundamental shift in the way things have always worked. This makes no sense, and history demonstrates just how resounding the evidence against this book is. Of the 146 asymmetrical power conflicts in the twentieth century, 145 were won by the people without the battleships, without the tanks, without the satellites. What weapon did the winners use? What we now call Terrorism.Israel, for example, established itself with terrorism; biographies of David Ben-Gurion explain the techniques used to rid Palestine and Israel of the occupying English. As with terrorists today, Ben-Gurion achieved his aims by blowing things up with malice aforethought, by killing English soldiers and civilians. Given that Frum and Perle are both Jewish, this is somewhat ironic. The evil they are trying to end is of the Muslim variety, and their distinctly rabbinical subtext is devoted to how to suppress Muslim nationalism, which supposedly threatens the US as much as it does Israel. They do not consider the notion that Israel's problems may be of its own making, nor that Muslim nationalism does not mount a significant military or economic threat to the United States. The book is worth reading as a sneak peek into future political buzzwords. However, the authors are simpletons in the mold of Voltaire's Candide. Their combination of handy buzzwords and simple-mindedness make this book potentially dangerous; idiotic as it may be, it will likely come back at us in the form of ineffective, burdensome policies once it passes through the hands of weak-minded, fear-mongering politicians. Both Frum's assumptions and conclusions violate the basic principles of good military planning and statecraft. He blithely ignores the lessons of history: huge disparities of power and wealth are huge liabilities for occupying forces. It was true for the Romans in Jerusalem, it is true for the United States in Iraq and elsewhere. No amount of preemption, technology, or sooth-saying by these Saducees will change that. The world and the impulses of the people in it are much the same as ever. Evils, and those who disgree with Frum and Perle's massively insecure definition of them, are not going to end.
Rating: 
Summary: An important book for or against
Review: This is an important book whether you are for or against its major narrative. This is the sort of book that talks in a language that subsumes many small arguments in a few big ones. We may critique this technique and say that none of the arguments are demonstrable. There is no "QED" at the end of this book. This book will have more impact on a public that reads these kinds of books and not on a few that read more technical pieces. So it is clear the importance of it is not in the arguments' success. It is instead important in understanding what sort of narrative can achieve prominence despite the tragic implications believing the narrative may have. While those may think I mean the narrative of the book itself, I suggest the same can be said for the main narrative the book considers the evil in the title - violent fundamentalist Islam. A great thought: the main challenge to fundamental Islamic thought could possibly come from liberal Islamic thought - perhaps even fostered in the US. The problem with this is that the real issue between fundamentalism and a more liberal perspective is a matter of education. The more education a person has, excluding inculcation of the fundamentalist dogma, the less fundamentalist the person will be. This is precisely the case in other countries, including the US, as well. Perhaps every teacher who has attempted to inculcate more critical thinking skills is aware of how difficult it is to succeed in this and has concluded that most people can not manage it. The idea is as old as Platonic psychology that most people aspire to a life of the satisfaction of lower appetites, fewer aspire to social responsibility, and still fewer aspire to wisdom. What Frum and Perle are suggesting is that there will be fewer evils in the world if more people were wiser. I would certainly agree, but making more people wiser is a universal problem, not simply one in the Islamic community. A blatant parochialism is evident in the suggestions in chapter 5: "The War Abroad". Concerning Iran (and other Islamic nations get the same sort of treatment) the suggestion is that governments are not legitimate if they are not democratic. For support of this thesis F&P use an ad populum - the American popular opinion. While they offer no support for their feeling that most Americans feel this way, this is a typical misappropriation of the social contract theory to those outside the scope of such social contracts - that may very well be a general feeling among relatively uneducated Americans. Apart from UN attempts to legitimize democracy as universal in scope to even those countries non-member states - or even member states that interpret the social contract differently, like China, there is certainly no coherent legitimating narrative supporting the argument that all people have rights as granted by our social contract when they do not belong to our nation state. Children in some foreign countries, like Sudan, can be legitimately sold as slaves, even by their parents, regardless of how abhorrent the practice is to Americans. Using this argument to support the overthrow of the legitimate government of Iran is no different than the Imams arguing that it would be right to overthrow our government because it does not follow Islamic Law. The real argument here, as they most closely follow through the book, is the point that we are at war with Islamic fundamentalism, Iran is a country ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, and so we ought to destroy the Islamic state - or any Islamic fundamentalist state. I would imagine it would also be right, to be coherent, for us to destroy any fundamentalist state regardless of their religion. Since that is not part of the narrative it looks very much like the view that it is us against them despite the suggestion that it is acceptable to use power to liberate them.
Rating: 
Summary: Wishful thinking to foster eternal war
Review: According to Frum & Perle, anyone who doesn't agree with us (and preferably has oil) is against us, and therefore evil, and therefore we red-blooded Amurricans (how did that toque-wearing, Canadian-bacon-scarfin' Frum sneak in there?) should wage war until the last raghead pledges allegiance to the Stars & Stripes. I'm not buying it. And I don't want my sons to die fighting in a war-without-end run by chickenhawks who "had other priorities" during Vietnam.
Rating:
Summary: Clearly Stated and Well Argued
Review: Many of the reviews of this book on Amazon appear to be knee jerk reactions based solely on the fact it was written by conservatives and therefore must be bigoted right wing nonsense. I found the auguments clearly stated, and the footnotes allow the reader to go directly to the source of all quotations. I happen to agree with the authors that we are in a war, and not one of our making, nor one that we could have done anything to avoid. It was not our actions in the Middle East or elsewhere that provoked the jihadists, it is the mere existence of our multicultural democratic society. So long as secular societies survive, the jihadists will perceive a threat to the success of their goals, and they will strive to arouse the world's vast population of Muslims from their mostly moderate, secular state into a state of religous warfare. The fanatics must be defeated, and the authors provide a workable outline for a global strategy. Not all readers will agree with all elements of the outline, but the general direction is exactly where we need to go, however uncomfortable the road.
Rating:
Summary: Whoa, Fellas!
Review: I enjoyed Frum's "70's" book and "Dead Right." That said, An End to Evil is just plain bad. If I method acted this book playing Risk, an 8 year old would beat me. The pieces would be spread too thin. The only way to win would be to get more pieces; figuratively know as money, which comes from... anyone... anyone... Bueller? Taxes. Seriously, if great empires decline from overextending, then An End to Evil is at the least a blueprint for destabilizing through quagmires and massive spending increases. Combine that with tax cuts increasing over the next five years, while prescription drug entitlements go up *unpredictably*. (The authors' solution for dealing with this is to get *all* their required money *now*). The call for greater diplomacy (aka preemptive budget savings:-) is lacking. I enjoy many foreign policy books I disagree with. But End to Evil was "out there." A second star for the absurd fun of quoting passages out loud... with disbelief.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Ugly Drivel
Review: Fear-Mongering, hate-mongering is the game here.
There are two maps for the history and future of this nation. One that considers that the past atrocities commited, such as the eradication of the natives, the enslavement of the blacks, were actual crimes commited, to help develop the nation into a more human and civilized nation. The USA in that case is on the right track. Another path for this nation would be to follow the advice of these two lunatics, and keep on looking for a fight, one fight after another, until lo and behold, we get enough enemies to make us pay back for it all, past and present.
Rating:
Summary: Bone Chilling and Unerringly Forthright
Review: Frum and Perle call a sobering tune. Although there is nothing new in the book, as we all have lived through the events, their thesis is sobering. They marshall an impressive array facts coupled with logical analysis. The United States simply has no choice but to confront the evil that is the islamist movement. We must see this through to an end that is satisfactory to the United States, not necessarily to the United Nations, the EU, or any other cabal of apologists and enablers for terrorists. This is a must-read book. The future of our Republic is on the line. We either confront the evil and vanquish it, or we give up our way of life in incremental steps; one act of butchery and intimidation at a time. One can not possibly frame the consequenses of the upcoming election without careful consideration of this book. History shows us that appeasement is the path to ruin, that only by confronting threats, does a civilization survive.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Report
Review: I can't imagine a better book on the source of terror and the proposed resolutions to a very difficult problem. Terrorism is the single greatest threat that the civilized world faces, and this book is both thorough in its analysis and insightful in its proposed resolutions. An excellent book!
Rating:
Summary: Scary
Review: I highly recomend this book if want to know precisley what not to think. Frum and Perle appear to be in the later stages of acute dementia or they just might have a nefarious and surreptitious agenda. In all seriousness this book is nuts and it would be funny if these guys didn't have so much influence.
Rating:
Summary: End of Evil as a racist book
Review: This book is written from a racist viewpoint that disparages anything that is Islamic or Arab. They are neoconservatives who want to have a US foreign policy that is unilateral and they obviously have an axe to grind with Islam and with Arabs. Any thing they say should be taken with a grain of salt as coming from people who denigrate anything Islamic or Arab. They see only Christian or Judaic religions as having any value.
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