The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right

by Steven Simon and Daniel Benjamin

Book Overview

The authors of the bestseller The Age of Sacred Terror show how the United States is losing the war on terror and what we need to do if we're serious about winning it. We are losing. Four years and two wars after September 11, 2001, the United States is no closer to victory in the "war on terror." In fact, we are unwittingly clearing the way for the next attack.In this provocative new book, Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon show how the terrorist threat...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805079416
• ISBN13: 9780805079418
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.8" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Perceptions and Reality

The central core of this book is that the United States is 'losing' the War on Terror because, in a nutshell, the Bush Administration has no concept of either the enemy or the war that the US is actually involved in. The War that the US is fighting is actually aiding and abetting the real foe - Militant Islam. Bush and his administration are fighting 'states' so the US invades Iraq and Afghanistan - set piece battles that the US excels at. But Militant Islam is basically everywhere now in enemy states (Iran and Sudan) friendly states (Pakistan and Egypt) and even old alles (Great Britain and Germany). So who does the US invade now? In Iraq itself the US had simply provided a 'terror school' for equipment and methods (the book is very good here) - the Militants are learning quickly and spreading the information back to their home countries. Attacks in Spain, Great Britain, Indoesnia show they are spreading the information very well. The book also does a good job on Homeland Security - it is very disquieting to read that the US is probably less safe now. Intradepartmental squabbles, unclear priorities (and old boy cronyism)and wasted time and money leave the US vulnerable to the next 'big event' that Bin Laden and Al Queda is plotting. The book is harshly critical of Bush and his chief advisors ( I imagine that explains the 'one star' reviews). But the book is far closer to the harsh reality of the war on terror that the US is presently engaged in.

Indispensable reading

A sober but devastating critique of the Bush administration's failures in combatting/prosecuting/preventing terrorism.

This well-researched book offers a chance for real security

This well-researched book faults the Bush administration leading up to and after 9/11. When the authors state something they have the sense to them promptly cite where they received statistics and other data making their claim. They want this book to present their own case to the readers. The authors argue that the United States has ultimately fed our Islamic opponents by being in Iraq. It wasn't just our recent stumblings which have upset them; the whole thing was a poorly-planned and conceived operation which shows us as 'greedy' and 'ruthless' conquerors. Furthermore, the region may now be even more unattainable as independent militant cells have a constant stream of recruits. These members are slipping under our government's tendencies to ignore whatever cannot be pigeonholed into existing epistemology, focusing on 'troops' as opposed to 'cells'. No critique of current American policy inside the Middle East could go without mentioning "Weapons of Mass Destruction" but the authors want to instead promote their own foregin policy strategy. If they were advising the president, they would acknowledge that terrorism is happening from independent cells. After the heavy annotations in other parts of this book, I had expected similar detail with their "Iraqification" program and honestly was disappointed when I did not get it. However, this is still an important book for people seeking substantive discussions about a current event. The authors believe we deserve the truth and can digest it.

Another Attack

Here in New York, where you could literally taste the World Trade Center in your mouth for weeks and it seemed everybody had a harrowing story to tell, I noticed that people adopted one of several strategies for coping with their shock and grief. Some bolted into action, working on relief, recovery or joining the Coast Guard. Others withdrew into the trivia of normal, everyday life. A third group, which included myself, grabbed everything they could read that might help them make sense of the incomprehensible. Benjamin's and Simon's "The Age of Sacred Terror," which was published in 2002, was one of the first books to appear after 9/11 that offered a thorough explanation of the origins of Islamic terrorism and traced America's intensifying response to it. Balanced and studious, it showed how the attacks did not come from "out of the blue," but from the depths of religious zealotry and historical grievance. It provided some comfort; the world may be crueler than you thought but at least it still followed the same logic of resentment, bigotry and violence. "The Next Attack" is not comforting even in that limited sense. It is a shout of alarm and a warning. The authors can barely contain their anger at the Bush Administration for its marginalization of the government's intelligence bureaucracy and its consequent misconceptualization of the jihadist threat. To their credit, however, they do not descend into pure polemic and their arguments are well documented with 437 end notes. Their careful evaluation of some claims and counter-claims, such as the President's statement that "75 percent of known al Qaeda leaders have been brought to justice," is particularly appreciated by this reader. Benjamin and Simon do not just think that the occupation of Iraq was poorly planned and mishandled, though they certainly make that case. They argue that the endeavor was misconceived to begin with and that by occupying Iraq the United States has played into the hands of its opponents. "It is unlikely that even in his most feverish reveries," they write, "Usama bin Laden could have imagined that America would stumble so badly and wound itself so grievously." The invasion and occupation of Iraq, they argue, has alienated our allies (that's rather obvious), confirmed the worst fears of Muslims about America's motives, and spurred recruitment into terrorist organizations. Although they acknowledge that in the short run the war may suppress terror acts in the United States as jihadists flock to Mesopotamia, they think that Iraq will prove to be an invaluable training ground for terrorists who will ultimately threaten the West directly, especially in Europe. Their discussion of Muslim immigration and alienation in Europe reads as if the civil disturbances in France had already happened when they wrote it. The authors' analysis of the decision-making process leading up to the invasion adds to the growing evidence that, WMD or not, such momentous decision

Extremely Good Overview and Bracing Thoughtful Critique

I am very surprised to not see other reviews of this book. While it lacks the intimate detail and the passion of Richard Clarke's book, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, it is the first book I have found in the years since 9/11 that satisfactorily reviews the bidding, provides a polite but hard-hitting critique of all we are doing wrong, and ends with reasonable recommendations for future action--recommendations that will most certainly not be adopted by the current Administration. Most gripping, on page 159 of the book, is a quote from a TIME article in 2003 that I missed back then, but that today I find compelling--a quote that likens Al Qaeda and its off-shoots not to a snake, the analogy popular with the Administration, but to mold--toxic mold one might add. The authors are to be commended for both their recognition that it is disruption, not destruction, that will cause the most pain to the West; and that most of our wounds are self-inflicted. "Intelligence" qua spies and secrecy and espionage does not play in this book. Indeed, in a footnote, the authors wonder if future adversaries will have any respect at all for U.S. intelligence, and with good reason. The irrelevance of secret intelligence to this larger conflict lends added weight to the common-sense open source information observations of the authors. [My own first book, On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World, with a Foreword by Senator David Boren (D-KS), today President of the University of Oklahomna, is the coffin I will use to redirect 80% of the secret intelligence budget back toward education and the only true national intelligence, the aggregate collective intelligence of We the People.] This book is especially recommended for students and citizens that do not have the time or money to read very widely in the national security arena, but want one single book to "catch up" on all that we have failed to accomplish. The book might well have been sub-titled "How a Naked Emperor Pranced Past a Sleeping Public for a Second Term."