Imperial Hubris - A good book

I've actually tried posting this long post 2 other times about a week ago, but apparently there were titles with the same name and I had to retype it each time. I gave up after the second time -- but here it is.



I've found a book called "Imperial Hubris". It is written by someone who is a supposed CIA agent... he remains anonymous in the book. His "career" with the CIA has been entirely composed of intelligence of the Middle East. While his identity cannot be verified... the book seems pretty dead on.

Here are some quotes and you can decide. What I am quoting from is the introduction, where he basically sums up the book. The rest of the book is him attempting to prove his theories and elaborate further.

Here they are:


My favorite quotes

"Of course, no senior US or UK official will admit to winging it. The immediate response from US policy makers and military planners, if asked if they had thoroughly reviewed the checkables, would be something like: 'We didn't have time.' 'We had to work with the material we had on hand.' 'We had to defend America.' Good rhetoric, superfically plausible in days of unthinking high emotion, and self-protectively wrapped in red, white, and blue...."

"If America's assumptions about its enemies had been valid, the Taleban might have been sitting and waiting to be annihilated when we attacked on 7 October 2001...."

Quoting Ralph Peters: 'Democracy must be earned and learned. It cannot be decreed from without. In a grim paradox, our insistence on instant democracy in shattered states... is our greatest contribution to global instability.'


Now the introductions points:


"US leaders refuse to accept the obvious: We are fighting a worldwide Islamic insurgency -- not criminality or terrorism -- and our policy and procedures have failed to make more than a modest dent in enemy forces."

"The military is now America's only tool and will remain so while current policies are in place. No public diplomacy, presidential praise for Islam, or politically correct debate masking the reality that many of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims hate us for actions not values, will get America out of this war."

"Bin Laden has been precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us. None of the reasons have anything to do with our freedom, liberty, and democracy, but have everything to do with US policies and actions in the Muslim world."

"The war bin Laden is waging has everything to do with the tenets of the Islamic religion. He could not have his current -- and increasing -- level of success if Muslims did not believe in their faith, brethren, resources, and lands to be under attack by the United States and, more generally, the West. Indeed, the United States, and its policies and actions, are bin Laden's only indispensable allies."

"Persian Gulf oil and the lack of serious US alternative-energy development are at the core of the bin Laden issue. For cheap, easily accessible oi, Washington and the West have supported the Muslim tyrannies bin Laden and other Islamists seek to destroy. There can be no other reason for backing Saudi Arabia, a regime that, since its founding, has deliberately fostered an Islamic Ideology, whose goals -- unlike bin Laden's -- can only be met by annihilating all non-Muslims."

"This war has the potential to last beyond our children's lifetimes and to be fought mostly on US soil."

Further adding to this are these mentions by the author:

Mostly, they revolve around the attitude of the American public and its leaders. Among them:

· Relax. He argues that the constant clamoring about terrorist threats is both frightening and demoralizing the public with no tangible benefit. He shows particular scorn for the "indoor traffic signal" color-coded alert system.

· Stop Celebrating Death and Defeat. He believes the constant, maudlin reflection on our casualties, particularly 9/11, is undignified.

· Accept that We are Hated, Not Misunderstood. We are not defending "freedom" but our foreign policy interests.

· Get Used to and Good at Killing. Quoting Ralph Peters, "We must avoid fantastic schemes to rescue those for whom we bear no responsibility….If we want to avoid the needless, thankless deaths of our own countrymen, we must learn to watch others die with equanimity (251)."

· Professional Soldiers are Paid to Die. While he doesn't want to see American soldiers' lives "wasted," he argues that we are too afraid to have them risk their lives, which they have volunteered to do. He believes we must stop our "knee jerk yellow ribboning (243)" and constant calls for bringing troops home.

Book Review: Anonymous, Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror


The evaluation aspect of this book, given in the above linked book review is a great read, as well.





seekerof

Seekerof - Yea, I did skim some parts of the book. There is a part of the book that greatly detains bin Laden's past that I got bored with. But overall, I was entertained.

A lot of the information is incredibly well thought out. It goes into great detain on the Afghan freedom fighters and also our support of the mujahideen (sp? it has been a long day) during the red army invasion.


Oh, and by the way, it is not a GWB bash fest.

[edit on 22-8-2005 by white4life420]