If you are serious about studying
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment