Scheuer, former CIA analyst and trenchant critic of U.S. terrorism policies (Imperial Hubris) develops his argument that America suffers from a collective insistence on sustaining Cold War paradigms in a fundamentally altered world. For all its culpable errors, the current administration is merely the present-day incorporation of willful historical ignorance, a paucity of common sense, and... a disastrous degree of intellectual hubris. These fundamental shortcomings are exacerbated by a pattern of making policy decisions on the basis of how a liberal-pacifist media and intelligentsia will react, rather than objectively considering the national interest. That interest, Scheuer argues, requires prioritizing the Islamic threat in security considerations and understanding that it does not manifest intractable, theologically based hostility to American values and lifestyles. The Islamic challenge instead reflects a series of concrete U.S. policy decisions, beginning in 1973, committing the U.S. to supporting an endless war to the death between Arabs and Israelis. An increasingly desperate effort to sustain a fundamental regional imbalance and Scheuer does not spare the Clinton administration has led to direct military involvement, culminating in the debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan. These defeats, Scheuer declares, are the inevitable result of seeking to change the Middle East's dynamics by exporting the unique American patterns of democracy and republicanism. Controversial in its details, Scheuer's analysis suffers fundamentally from Occidentalism. Interpreting Islamic behavior as a consequence of American actions keeps the U.S. at the center of events in precisely the Cold War model Scheuer excoriates. (Feb. 12) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Scheuer, a 25-year veteran of the CIA and chief of its bin Laden unit for four years in the 1990s, has written an angry, uneven, and ultimately unsatisfying book that purports to chronicle how and why "bipartisan governing elites" have abdicated their responsibilities to protect the US from al Qaeda. US foreign policy never transformed after the end of the Cold War, and foreign policy elites have consistently been too ignorant of history and weak-willed to recognize, and decisively deal with, the threat of Islamist extremists. The book is rife with name-calling and petulant accusations that give it an amateurish feel. Its biggest drawback, however, is the contradictory nature of its main theme. Though Scheuer rejects the notion that bin Laden and al Qaeda hate the US (they just do not like US foreign policy), it is difficult to reconcile that observation with his bellicose prescriptions, which would likely generate another generation of extremists. Scheuer preaches realism, but his foreign policy prescriptions are simplistic and not realistic. Scheuer also misunderstands some key concepts (e.g., soft power, just war) and his non-Middle East historical research is lacking. Particularly egregious is his uncritical view of Ronald Reagan. Summing Up: Optional. All readership levels. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by J. Fields. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Preface
Introduction
Author's Note
Part I Getting to 9/11
Chapter 1 Readying bin Laden's Way: America and the Muslim World, 1973-1996
Chapter 2 Fighting Islamists with a Blinding Cold War Hangover, 1996-2001
Part II Six Years of War, 2001-2007
Chapter 3 Afghanistan -- A Final Chance to Learn History Applies to America
Chapter 4 Iraq -- America Bled White by History Unlearned
Chapter 5 And the Islamists' Fire Quietly Spreads
Part III Where Stands the War?
Chapter 6 ""The bottom is out of the

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