Excerpts from the book:Against All Enemies

Richard A. Clarke's book-Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror-was filled with a plethora of information, from the Reagan administration to present & how the White House has dealt with the issue of Terrorism.
I begin near the end:
"Could we have stopped the September 11 attack? It would be facile to say yes. What is clear is that there were failures in the organizations that we trusted to protect us, earlier failures to get information to the right place at the right time, earlier failures to act boldly to reduce or eliminate the threat...From the interactions I did have with Bush it was clear that the critique of him as a dumb, lazy rich kid were somewhat off the mark. When he focused, he asked the kind of questions that revealed a results-oriented mind, but he looked for the simple solution, the bumper sticker description of the problem...It was plainly obvious when four aircraft were hijacked that airline security had to be improved, but Bush resisted calls for making the airport security screeners federal employees,..It was also plainly obvious after September 11 that al-Qaeda's sanctuary in Taliban-run Afghanistan had to be occupied by U. S. forces and the al Qaeda leaders killed. Unfortunately, Bush's efforts were slow and small...The federal government was providing first responder assistance to states based upon a formula that resulted in eight times more funds per capita for Wyoming than for California. Because of the economic downturn and its effects on state and city tax revenues, cities and states were actually dismissing fire and police personnel in 2003...The clearest indication of the depth of President Bush's understanding and of his own motivations came in Diane Sawyer's interview with Bush on ABC Television. Sawyer asked Bush about the "hard fact that there were weapons of mass destruction, as opposed to the possibility that [Saddam] might move to acquire those weapons." The President's consonsidered response was, "What's the difference?" Then he added, "The possibility that he could acquire weapons. If he were to acquire weapons, he would be the danger."...It is not hard to understand why, after repeatedly hearing remarks like that, 70 percent of the American people believed Saddam Hussein had attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. I suspect that many heroic U.S. troops who risked their lives fighting in Iraq thought, because of misleading statements from the White House, that they were avenging the 3,000 dead from September 11...Terrorism, which never once was addressed in by the Presidential candidate in 2000, will be a major topic in the 2004 capaign." {Funny Richard! it wasn't even touched upon, yet the War on Iraq was #1!} Richard ends his book with the responsibility on us-"As Americans, it is up to us to be well informed and thoughtful, to help our country make the right decisions in this time of testing. We all need to recommit ourselves to that ancient pledge 'to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United State of America, Against All Enemies. . ."
No question this book makes me proud I voted Democrate and sorry that the majority of America voted Republican.