The book Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror is an interesting read. First, it is a great source of information on the behind-the-scene machinations of national security. Richard Clarke writes with feeling about his role in the countering terrorism for multiple administrations over the past two decades.

If you read this book with the goal of finding out the inner workings of national security, you will be greatly rewarded. I will caution you however to take a lot of what is said with a grain of salt. It is clear that Clarke has an agenda. I wouldn’t be surprised if his advance on the book came out of Clinton’s pocket. He takes every opportunity to point out that Clinton did all the right things and that everyone associated with the Reagan or either of the Bush administrations was either woefully in the dark or outright stupid in their response to the terrorist threat.

That being said, it actually is a very good book (for the first couple chapters)… just consider the source when subjective observations infiltrate the otherwise informative historical text – better yet, just read the first four or five chapters and scrap the rest…its all rant from that point anyway.

45 points