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Loading... Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraqby Michael F. Scheuer
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.  gmicksmith | Jan 7, 2009 |  I'm about a third of the way through it now and it's bordering on unreadable. And I really, really, enjoyed Imperial Hubris and other articles by Scheuer that I've read. I might get around to finishing this but Christ is it a whole lot of effort for not a lot of joy. Short list of some of the things and people Scheuer despises up to page 110: FBI (nosy, incompetent, actively sabotaging the CIA) NSA (pretentious, not willing to do their job) Entire Clinton administration (no balls) Entire Bush administration (no clue) All US Presidents since WWII with one exception (see below) Europeans (a.k.a. land of "hedonistic atheists") Non-Governmental Organizations (especially Amnesty International and other members of the "human rights mafia") Academics (in particular just-war theorists) Short list of some of the things and people Scheuer loves up to page 110: Michael Scheuer The CIA Margaret Thatcher Ronald Reagan Apparently later on in the book he proposes a solution to protecting US from Al Qaeda which includes a crash program to set landmines along the entirety of the Mexican and Canadian borders. I can't wait. (  ) tirade | Jul 7, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0743299698, Hardcover)When Michael Scheuer first questioned the goals of the Iraq War in his 2004 bestseller Imperial Hubris, policymakers and ordinary citizens alike stood up and took notice. Now, Scheuer offers a scathing and frightening look at how the Iraq War has been a huge setback to America's War on Terror, making our enemy stronger and altering the geopolitical landscape in ways that are profoundly harmful to U.S. interests and security concerns.Marching Toward Hell is not just another attack on the Bush administration. Rather, it sounds a critical alarm that must be heard in order to preserve the nation's security. Scheuer outlines the ways that America's foreign policy since the end of the Cold War has undermined the very goals for which we are fighting and played right into bin Laden's hands. The ongoing instability in Iraq, for example, has provided al Qaeda and its allies with the one thing they want most: a safe haven from which to launch operations across borders into countries that were previously difficult for them to reach. With U.S. forces and resources spread thinner every day, the war has depleted our strength and brought al Qaeda a kind of success that it could not have achieved on its own. A twenty-plus-year CIA veteran, Scheuer headed the agency's Osama bin Laden unit, managed its covert-action operations, and authored its rendition program. Scheuer spent his career developing strategies to keep America safe, by any means deemed necessary by the presidents he served. It was his job to take available intelligence and devise plans to protect Americans, without considering bias, position, or even existing alliances. In Marching Toward Hell, Scheuer takes on the questions of "What went wrong?" and "How can we fix this?" and proposes a plan to cauterize the damage that has already been done and get American strategy back on track. He lists a number of painful recommendations for how we must shift our ideological, military, and political views in order to survive, even if that means disagreeing with Israeli policy or launching more brutal campaigns against terrorists. America holds its destiny in its hands, Scheuer says, yet not nearly enough has been done to defend America and destroy its Islamist enemies. This is an eye-opening, alarming, contentious, and ultimately fascinating examination of how far off track the War on Terror has gone, and a critical read in understanding what we must do to save it. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:05 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
On CNN, Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer in charge of the hunt for Bin Laden is critical of former President Clinton and the man reported to be President-elect Obama's pick to head the CIA, Leon Panetta:
"He clearly has nothing on his curriculum vitae that suggests he should be the candidate for this job," Scheuer said. "It's not apparent he has any talent that is pertinent to the job."
Scheuer said Panetta's lack of experience could damage the agency and jeopardize national security.
"What Mr. Panetta's appointment says is that there's no urgency in the mind of the Obama administration that they think they can send somebody over there who can learn on the job and that the enemy will wait to attack us," he said."
Appearing on the Fox News' "Special Report," Scheuer stated:
"The agency officers will be well aware that bin Laden is a problem today because Mr. Panetta and Mr. Clinton and their colleagues chose to do nothing to protect America."