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Summary:
Richard Clarke's dramatic statement to the grieving families during the 9/11 Commission hearings touched a raw nerve across America. Not only had our government failed to prevent the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it has proven itself, time and again, incapable of handling the majority of our most crucial national security issues, from Iraq to Katrina and beyond. This is not just a temporary failure of our current leadership—it is a systemic problem, the result of a pattern of incompetence that must be understood, confronted, and prevented.
Clarke's first book, the number one bestseller Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, explained how the United States had stumbled into a struggle with violent Islamist extremists. Now, in Your Government Failed You, Clarke looks at why these unconscionable failures have continued and how America and the world can succeed against the terrorists. Yet Clarke also goes far beyond terrorism, to examine the inexcusable chain of recurring U.S. government disasters. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, there is Iraq. A trail of intelligence failures litters the Washington landscape. From Katrina to color codes and duct tape, "homeland security" has been an oxymoron. Why does the superpower continue to bobble national security?
Clarke minces no words in his examination of the breadth and depth of the mediocrity, entropy, and collapse endemic in America's national security programs. In order for the United States to stop its string of strategic mistakes, we first need to understand why they happen. Drawing on his thirty years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community, Clarke gives us a privileged, if horrifying, look into the debacle of government policies, discovering patterns in the failures and offering ways to stop the cycle once and for all.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Advice to Obama
Customer Rating:
New president Obama needs to read this book. After 31 years in government i finally found someone who tells it like it is. That person is Richard Clarke. He has insights that i have known for years but never been able to confirm about some political appointees and their cronies. He also knows the career civil servant well. Washington is a place full of deceit and executive criminal behavior. Reading this book is excellent perparation for that duty. If you want to know what works in national security policy and what does not then read this book. Mr Clarke's blind spot is that he was never in the military. Other than that i find him on target in every aspect of his comments.
Riveting work!
Customer Rating:
I'm not one to read political books, but after seeing Richard on an interview, I felt I had to read this book. And I was in for a shock. Not since THE SHINING have I ever read a more horrifying book. The monsters in this book are REAL and you can see how evil people rise to power by reading this book. Yes, real evil. We've all been under its influence because real evil rises to power skillfully and blinds people to not seeing the truth. Thankfully, Clarke tells us all what we need to hear to shed light on the darkness that set the world against us as we dropped the ball of our original vision. Congrats Richard--this is an amazing work!
Devestating look at our broken system
Customer Rating:
After every chapter, I had to put this book down, and complain to my wife at how depressing Richard Clarke's description our national security apparatus was. Although we have the most elaborate system of information gathering and analysis in the world, in the end the product of the system is group-think, result oriented political fodder - insufficient to detect, let alone prevent attacks (internal and external) to our national security. Although Mr. Clarke offers concrete, real world solutions, because the system is run by neophyte political appointees, and entrenched, underpaid civil servants, there is simply no hope for reform. The writing is clear, and engaging, but the topic is thoroughly disheartening.
My one criticism is that Mr. Clarke seems to brush aside the need for anonymity on the web in the name of national security, with little regard to the plight of whistle blowers, and those in oppressive regimes who use the web as a safe outlet for communication..
An eye-opener from someone on the inside
Customer Rating:
This book takes an uncompromising look at the inability of the government to prevent security and intelligence failures, like those that occurred before 9/11.
Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the US Army had no counter-insurgency strategy. Part of the reason was to not resurrect unpleasant memories from Vietnam, and part of the reason was the absolute belief among top officials of the Bush Administration that it would not be needed, that the US troops would be greeted as liberators. It wasn't until four years into the war that General Petraeus was asked to put together a counter-insurgency strategy.
In Iraq, there is a nearly equal number of US troops and civilian contractors. There is a similar ratio between government and private intelligence analysts here in America. The author thinks that should change, now. Analysis should be brought back under government control. Analysts also have no access to public sources of information. Some public bit of information may be all that is needed to, for instance, turn a satellite photo into a photo of secret missile bases.
The author also feels that the percentage of ambassadorships and high-level defense and security jobs available to big political contributors and former elected officials should be reduced by a lot; those jobs belong to the professionals. Other countries are better than America at getting human spies on the "inside." That part of the US intelligence business should be downsized, and America should focus on the technical part of intelligence gathering. But, America needs to resist the temptation to launch more and more sophisticated satellites into orbit, when a simpler satellite will do the job.
Clarke feels that the next major battleground will be in cyberspace. The current staff of the Office of Management and Budget working on federal IT security is 2 people. That should be increased to more like 200 people, and they should get the clout to force agencies to take proper security precautions.
Clarke has spent many years in high government positions, so he knows what he is talking about. Here is a fascinating, and eye-opening, book that will help to explain large parts of recent US foreign policy.
Great Book!
Customer Rating:
Clarke Identifies the Problems/Failures of government, the solutions, and how to get to the solutions. From somebody who was in the middle of it and is as intelligent as he is, what more do you need?
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