Against All Enemies - Richard A Clarke

If you are serious about studying U.S. history and politics at the turn of the millennium, then this book is absolutely required reading. Richard Clarke served four U. S. Presidents in the department of defense from 1985 to 2003, and was the chair of the Counter-Terrorism Security Group from 1992-2003. If anyone speaks with authority about the U.S. government's response to terrorism, and Al Qaida in particular, it is Clarke. “Against All Enemies” is his memoir, with his eyewitness account and personal analysis of events and actions taken by the administrations he served. This book starts with a thoughtful analysis of the rise of jihadism and Al Qaida and the U.S response to these in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks. Then Clarke unleashes a scathing critique of the younger Bush administration’s lack of interest in Al Qaida before the September 11 attacks, their weak response against Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and their blunder into war with Iraq.

As of this writing in 2009, Clarke’s arguments and analysis seem right on, and you are left wishing the government had listened to him, giving us a chance to prevent the 9/11 attacks, knock out Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaida training camps, and avoid our disastrous invasion of Iraq. Having just written that, I can imagine my conservative friends’ eyes rolling – and that suggests the chink in Clarke’s armor. This book was written in 2004, and at that time, the Bush administration was able to discredit Clarke, win re-election, and go on for 4 more years with their policies, completely ignoring anything Clarke had to say. So, during his three years with the younger Bush administration, Clarke was not able to bring anyone in power over to his side and get his ideas enacted. After that, he published this book just before the presidential election, and Bush won anyway. Clarke looks great in retrospect, but at a critical time he was influential in government, he wasn’t particularly persuasive. Obviously however, you can’t blame him for the bull-headedness of his adversaries in government, and his effectiveness in service to his country far out weigh his weaknesses. Clarke comes off as a genuine American hero with human faults, and his story is an essential contribution to the history of our time.

Posession, A Romance
By A. S. Byatt

I liked this book a lot. I like everything I've read by A.S. Byatt. I like that she is so interested in stories, writing, language, and symbolism, and she crafts her fiction to mix these elements in a natural way. She reminds me of Jane Austin in how she fits a story together and how she treats her characters. She gives dimension to heroes and villains, allowing you to identify with their triumphs and tragedies. Possession is a rich story with several interesting dimensions woven together, examining the idea of different kinds of possession in her characters interconnected stories. It is titled as a romance, but it is also a detective story, and equally uses devices from both genres, the story remains fresh 'till the end with several twists, and doesn't take the cheap way out. All in all, great work. Worth reading and re-reading.