Against All Enemies

October 10th, 2006 | Filed under Politics, Reviews

After watching President Clinton’s interview with Fox News a couple weeks back I was very intrigued by a comment he made about Richard A. Clarke, who worked in every administration from Reagan up through W’s.

“All I’m asking is anybody who wants to say I didn’t do enough (to stop Bin Laden), you read Richard Clarke’s book” -President Bill Clinton

That was more than enough of an endorsement for me. I picked up Clarke’s book as an audiobook and have been listening to it the past couple of days and been enthralled. While the audiobook version is abridged, and it does feel a little short, it is a fascinating inside look at the “war on terror” and steps leading up to 9/11 as well as blunder that is the Iraq war.

One of my biggest fears in reading the book was that Clarke would have an obvious bias for either the Democratic or Republican administrations, however it doesn’t appear to be the case. Seeing as Clarke worked for 3 Republican administrations and one Democrat, I’ve come to the conclusion that he was a public servant first, and political hack second. However, he clearly feels that Clinton was the only President that did anything to not only stop terrorists, but also stop the root causes of terrorism, something he felt all of the Republican Presidents missed.

His look into the more recent Bush’s White House is equally interesting as the issues have exploded onto the news. Especially in regards to Rice’s tenure as National Security Advisor and Rumsfeld/Cheney’s insistence on attacking Iraq regardless of their non-role in 9/11.

All in all it is a really great book giving a ground work for those of us who want to understand, at least on a little deeper level, how something like 9/11 happened. Check it out if you have the chance.