The New Road

Against All Enemies

I just finished Clarke's book Against All Enemies. It would be gracious to call this an unbiased account. It's obvious that Clarke worked really hard, and effectively, primarily during the Clinton administration, and felt snubbed by the Bush administration. That being said, his points are very cogent. His primary points are that the problem started with our funding of the muj rebels in Afghanistan, and was exacerbated by our prolonged stay in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War. That during the Clinton administration we finally started to take al Queda seriously, but the effectiveness of the administration was hampered by the pit-bull tactics of the Republicans looking to exact revenge for losing the election to Clinton.

He then goes on to say that Clinton briefed the incoming Bush administration on al Queda and they essentially ignored it. All things Clinton were bad. The crazy terrorism thing was Clinton's stuff, since it hadn't been around with Bush Sr. So it was best to ignore it.

Jumping to the current time he says that the current administration has squandered the good will we had after 9/11 by going into Iraq when that country had nothing to do with 9/11.

There were some stunners. The assertion that al Queda could have had insurgents in Somalia during the Black Hawk Down period. That there are some strings connecting Terry Nichols to al Queda. The rest I knew or at least assumed. From day one Wolfowitz, Cheney and Bush were focused on Iraq. That only 5% of the troops committed to the "War on Terror" are in Afghanistan, where we are actually fighting al Queda. Etc. Etc.

Definitely worth the read. It's a quick read. I picked it up at around 4PM yesterday, didn't start reading it until around 7PM and finished it this morning.