Book Description
Since the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Bush administration has come under fire for its methods of combating terrorism. Waging war against al Qaeda has proven to be a legal quagmire, with critics claiming that the administration's response in Afghanistan and Iraq is unconstitutional. The war on terror—and, in a larger sense, the administration's decision to withdraw from the ABM Treaty and the Kyoto accords—has many wondering whether the constitutional framework for making foreign affairs decisions has been discarded by the present administration.
John Yoo, formerly a lawyer in the Department of Justice, here makes the case for a completely new approach to understanding what the Constitution says about foreign affairs, particularly the powers of war and peace. Looking to American history, Yoo points out that from Truman and Korea to Clinton's intervention in Kosovo, American presidents have had to act decisively on the world stage without a declaration of war. They are able to do so, Yoo argues, because the Constitution grants the president, Congress, and the courts very different powers, requiring them to negotiate the country's foreign policy. Yoo roots his controversial analysis in a brilliant reconstruction of the original understanding of the foreign affairs power and supplements it with arguments based on constitutional text, structure, and history.
Accessibly blending historical arguments with current policy debates, The Powers of War and Peace will no doubt be hotly debated. And while the questions it addresses are as old and fundamental as the Constitution itself, America's response to the September 11 attacks has renewed them with even greater force and urgency.
“Can the president of the United States do whatever he likes in wartime without oversight from Congress or the courts? This year, the issue came to a head as the Bush administration struggled to maintain its aggressive approach to the detention and interrogation of suspected enemy combatants in the war on terrorism. But this was also the year that the administration’s claims about presidential supremacy received their most sustained intellectual defense [in] The Powers of War and Peace.”—Jeffrey Rosen, New York Times
“Yoo’s theory promotes frank discussion of the national interest and makes it harder for politicians to parade policy conflicts as constitutional crises. Most important, Yoo’s approach offers a way to renew our political system’s democratic vigor.”—David B. Rivkin Jr. and Carlos Ramos-Mrosovsky, National Review
Customer Reviews:
Reasoned.......2007-05-13
John Yoo's book makes cogent arguments based upon a careful legal analysis and established constitutional principles. A fine contribution to the debate of our times.
Terrifying Justice Department Double Think.......2006-10-06
Mr Yoo moves on from his earlier arguments that torture falls at a point slightly short of physical death, organ failure or loss of limb. Mr Yoo makes some interesting if devastating points with his new theories. The President's war powers, he argues, allow him to do, basically, whatever he wants. The President may, if he chooses, crush the genitals of children, maim, torture or kill civilians. In this respect one might remember that Bush ordered an air strike on the house occupied by the infant grandchildren of Saddam Hussein AFTER the end of the Iraq war and even though the house was surrounded by US troops. The President is limited, according to Mr Yoo, only by how he CHOOSES to interpret International Treaties and as he has the power to repudiate such treaties or ignore them entirely (as in the International Human Rights for the Child Treaty, the Geneva Convention or the Treaty of Vienna,) then, this means that presidential power is absolute EVEN if despotic criminal or tyrannical. Mr Yoo appears now to say that the President and his henchmen, cronies and agencies MAY indeed use indiscriminant torture. Mr Yoo however does not adequately explain how the President can thus overturn congressional treaty ratification. As what constitutes a 'time of war' is also up to the President and does not rely on any 'legal' declaration of war (which is a matter of international law to which the US is thus not subject,) then the US may have, effectively, a Despot Emperor for President. Does the 'War on Drugs' thus give the President the same wartime powers as he asserts for his 'War on Terror' - an undeclared war on no particular nation state? Is the US thus always in a state of war? This is interesting, not just semantically, as the District and Supreme Courts appear to agree with Mr Yoo's interpretation, blocking cases connected with this on grounds of national security whilst Congress does not appear to care. Perhaps Clinton should have used Mr Yoo's arguments in the Monical Lewinsky scandal and impeachment hearings. War powers might have thus allowed him to do whatever he wanted with his cigar and to lie about it in the national interest. The problem with Mr Yoo's argument is that Checks and Balances thus no longer appear to exist. Interestingly if one applies Mr Yoo's arguments to their logical end he becomes an eloquent advocate for terrorism or for the Holocaust where the ends justify the use of any means, however horrible. Of course, either this is pretty much nonsense and makes toilet paper of the Declaration of Independence, Magna Carta, democracy and human rights OR the truth is more terrifying and the US is now a Stalinist or Nazi state. I suspect Mr Yoo could be subject to arrest as a war criminal should he ever leave the United States and visit a civilised country???
Yoo has no clue!.......2006-06-23
The 2 biggest mistakes made by government in my lifetime are Congress giving away war powers in 1965 and 2002. The constitution holds that declaring war is the responsibility of the Congress. If the Executive has grounds for war let him/her present them and Ccongress vote. Twice I have seen Congress abdicate this important power with disasterous results. This is just one of many examples why Yoo has no clue.
This book's point about constitutional checks and balances were once taught in 8th grade civics class........2006-05-26
The outrage this book caused on publication is a sign of the incredible ignorance so prevalent these days about was once common knowledge--that the powers of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches exist in parallel under the elegant system of checks and balances of the Constitution, each with their separate skill set and functions. This book is a necessary defense of the traditional constitutional idea that the executive branch has primacy in matters of war, national security, and foreign policy. It is sad that otherwise sensible people like Neal Katyal and Stuart Taylor should tout outre ideas about the Constitution as a big sandbag over the head of the President most especially in war, national security and foreign policy, as if this idea, which is strictly the invention of the left, were Con Law 101. It is so Nixon era. But there you go. The "me generation" took over the academy, threw out all the Rembrandts, and filled it up with their Hello Kitty and Marilyn tchotchkes.
Important to understand Constitution after 9/11.......2006-02-01
This is an important book in order to understand the Constitution and the response to 9/11. The attacks on this book here are ridiculous. Even liberal critics of the Bush administration and Yoo think this is an important book. Cass Sunstein, a famous liberal law professor, wrote a review in the New Republic that said: "The most important theorist of the 9/11 Constitution is John Yoo." He says "Yoo has offered an inventive and provocative set of arguments about fundamental questions, and he presents his arguments with unmistakable determination and all the skill of a good lawyer."
Book Description
Islam is America's fastest growing religion, with more than six million Muslims in the United States, all living in the shadow of 9/11. Who are our Muslim neighbors? What are their beliefs and desires? How are they coping with life under the War on Terror? In Mecca and Main Street, noted author and journalist Geneive Abdo offers illuminating answers to these questions. Gaining unprecedented access to Muslim communities in America, she traveled across the country, visiting schools, mosques, Islamic centers, radio stations, and homes. She reveals a community tired of being judged by Americans' perceptions of Muslims overseas and eager to tell their own stories. Abdo brings these stories vividly to life, allowing us to hear their own voices and inviting us to understand their hopes and their fears. The younger generation of Muslims in particular is charting a different way of life. They are following new imams and placing their Muslim identity before their American one. And unlike their parents, they do not define themselves by their ethnic background, as Pakistani, Palestinian, or Yemeni. Instead they see themselves as belonging to a universal faith. Through their new organizations and websites, they exchange ideas about how to create a more Islamic lifestyle. Inspiring, insightful, tough-minded, and even-handed, this book will appeal to those curious (or fearful) about the Muslim presence in America. It will also be warmly welcomed by the Muslim community that it depicts.
Customer Reviews:
Much needed addition to the body of books about Islam .......2007-07-16
Because of the short sighted view of Muslims presented on, say, the evening news, far too many Americans are unaware of the diversity of the ummah
in this society. Mecca and Main Street provides a substantive glimpse of the aforementioned, and does so in a compelling fashion.
Best yet on American Muslims since 9-11.......2007-06-17
A previous study of "American Muslims" sketched examples simplified as an American reporter largely ignorant of Islam and Arabic and an outsider was not a bad introduction. Abdo ads knowlege of Arabic, years living in Egypt studying Islamist parties, and in Iran wearing Chador has much better depth and understanding and is better organized to analyse the issues anong Muslims: not just ptofiling and persecution, but also generational conflict, multicultul Islam developing from the universities, dealing with the real social and personal issues wihin the community itself. Better understanding the role of women and differences from integration in the US versus Europe are clarified. We still don't have a thorough study by a Muslim but the knowlege and empathy here achieves much credibility. Should be read and discussesd by interested Americans including student and Mosque reading groups.
She deserves lots of credit.......2007-06-13
It is seldom seen that a non-muslim has to say anything positive about muslims, specially in the Unites States. Lot of credit goes to Ms. Abdo for her fair and balanced view of Muslim life in America. Americans really need to open up their hearts and minds about muslims and stop judging through a tainted glass of hate and right wing brain washing. Don't judge the whole muslim "umma" due to the actions of 0.000001 %fanatics who think they are doing it in the name of religion.
The only complaint I have is that she didn't discuss much about muslims in America from the Indo-Pak sub continent, as they make up a substantial number in this country.
Mildly interesting........2007-03-05
If Abdo wrote this book to increase non-Muslims understanding of, and empathy towards, American Muslims, her work is hardly a resounding success. Why would young people growing up in a free country want some religious figure to tell them how to organize the minute details of their lives: how much to sleep, what to eat, what to watch on TV? Reading this book made me wonder whether the differences between Muslims, Christians, and secular Americans aren't insurmountable after all. Abdo doesn't deal with the most pressing issues that non-Muslims have with Islam, but does provide a history of Muslims in America. Somewhat illuminating, but not a page turner.
A Serious Piece of Scholarship.......2007-01-24
"Mecca and Mainstreet" is must reading for Americans casually curious about Muslims (those who follow the religion of Islam) in America, researchers formally studying the topic, and especially Muslim Americans - a burgeoning community of six million - seeking to discover and learn about their own complex but understudied history in the United States. Geneive Abdo has undertaken an impressive amount of primary source research: the book is the culmination of three years of extensive mixing and interviews with members of the Muslim community primarily in Chicago and to a lesser extent in other major cities such as New York, San Francisco, and LA. Moreover, her writing style is smooth and highly accessible - a key quality that is desperately lacking in most serious academic scholarship. Indeed, the presentation of "Mecca and Mainstreet" is as solid as the content.
Abdo has separate chapters on the Muslim Students' Associations within various universities, new and rising imams (religious guides) - including interviews with some of the most well known spiritual figures within the Muslim American community such as Imam Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir - and Muslims taking Islam to the streets by providing social services. This latter section zooms in on the creative activities of Rami Nashashibi of IMAN (the Inner-City Muslim Action Network) in inner-city Chicago. There are also chapters on the experiences of Muslim Latino converts, culturally conservative Muslims in certain parts of Michigan, the changing and contested role of women in the mosque, and a concise and informative history that carefully traces the evolution of Islam in America.
The work also has problems. It is ISNA-centric. (ISNA, an acronym for the Islamic Society of North America, is the largest Muslim organization in the United States with immigrant Islam constituting the brunt of its economic base). For example, Arabs and South Asians are the Movers and Shakers of "Mecca and Mainstreet"; the Afro-American Muslim community is portrayed as somewhat stagnant and passive. Although Abdo, commendably, exposes the tension and thus distance that exists between immigrant and Afro-American Muslims - an important issue that is rarely discussed among Muslims - she fails to elaborate upon the significant wealth disparity that clearly exists between both communities. It seems pretty obvious to me that, generally at least, the Arab and South Asian Muslim community is highly-educated and saturated with professionals (doctors, engineers) that in turn give them greater resources to establish themselves - through the creation of mosques, Islamic schools, and other institutions - as the authoritative and representative voice of Muslims in America. The most impressive aspect of Abdo's narrative is that she has a firm grasp of how Muslim American society is transforming as second generation Muslims struggle to create an Islamic identity that transcends race, ethnicity, and petty nationalism - a core theme in her work. I must admit, however, that at times she over-romanticizes this Islamic universalism; there are also a fair share of Muslim youth who still uphold the tradition of their parents by rigidly identifying with their national and especially racial and ethnic baggage.
I highly recommend this book. As a history student of the Islamic revival - that has swept through the Muslim world since the 1970s - I had already been exposed to Abdo's work through her rigorously researched and vigorously written account of political Islamic activism in contemporary Egypt, "No God But God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam" (Oxford University Press, 2004). "Mecca and Mainstreet" is just as solid, and in its oral research, path breaking. At a time when mainstream journalists consistently manipulate images of Islam and Muslims to concur with, reinforce, and recreate racist assumptions about the religion's alleged "backwardness" and "barbarity", Abdo - as a journalist and a non-Muslim (she is of Lebanese Christian descent) writing for such major papers as the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune - is to be commended and applauded by both the Muslim and the academic community for her objectivity, and the sheer courage and integrity that must come with that.
Shadaab H. Rahemtulla
M.A. Candidate
Department of History
Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, Canada
Book Description
Known as Little Pakistan, the community of Midwood, Brooklyn, has suffered a remarkable exodus in the years since 9/11. One sixth of the community-20,000 people-has left in search of liberty. In an ironic reversal of the American dream, this immigrant community now lives in fear, witnessing the unjust detainment or deportation of family members, friends, and neighbors. Tram Nguyen reveals the human cost of the domestic war on terror and examines the impact of post-9/11 policies on people targeted because of immigration status, nationality, and religion. Nguyen's evocative narrative reporting-about the families, detainees, local leaders, community advocates, and others-is from those living and suffering on the front lines. We meet Mohammad Butt, who died in detention in New Jersey, and the Saleems, who flee Queens for Canada. We even follow a self-proclaimed -citizen patroller- who monitors and detains immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border. We Are All Suspects Now, in the words of Mike Davis, takes us inside a dark world . . . where the American Dream is fast turning into a nightmare- and suggests proactive responses to stop our growing climate of xenophobia, intimidation, and discrimination.
Customer Reviews:
An Easy, Yet Informative Read.......2006-11-29
In her book, Tram Nguyen claims that there is very little room left for any infraction by someone without the legal status to be here in the US due to a post-9/11 national climate of fear and growing intolerance. She argues that there is little room left for immigrants in America to become anything more than "cardboard cutouts" simply playing a role to please their suspicious neighbors and ever more watchful government. She claims that the American political imagination has shifted so far to the right that people without status who have a certain profile must work harder and harder to earn and deserve their place in society: they must prove to everyone else why they should not be suspected, jailed, and eventually shipped away (in other words, guilty until proven innocent). Not only that, the book also discusses how recent security concerns have been used as a justification for the US government to display increased racial and cultural discrimination in areas of long-standing concern to civil rights advocates; such as housing and jobs. There are no exceptions to the argument presented, any and all immigrants, and especially communities of immigrants have been affected in the post-9/11 national security frenzy. Somalis, Haitians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, and more, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, have all been targeted by recent policies. While several scholars and others have so far explored the legal and constitutional ramifications of the war on terror, this book takes a different, ground-level, view of how these national and local policies affect the individuals, families, and communities themselves - the real effects of such policies on our neighbors. Most importantly, the author argues that with hindsight, racial and ethnic scapegoating in response to crisis is by and large viewed as unjust and inexcusable. The author asks readers: Will the war on terrorism redefine the meaning of who belongs in America?
The claim that America has been putting every immigrant and foreigner in the USA under suspicion post-9/11 is backed up in this book by several firsthand stories and conversations. Also, at the end of the book there is an appendix which is titled "2001-2004: A time line of major events and policies affecting immigrants and civil liberties", which briefly describes over 100 policies and events which have directly affected immigrants, their families, and their communities since the September 11 World Trade Center attacks. Policies and events included are Secret Proceedings, the USA Patriot Act, Military Tribunals, Indefinite Detentions, INS Restructuring, and the new Department of Homeland Security, among others. The firsthand stories alone are not enough for me to deem this book effective in its claim that all immigrants and foreigners are living a suspected and frightened existence in America. However, the time line appendix in combination with these stories does make it an effective and worthwhile portrait in my mind. This book was not made to dryly describe policy and legalities, it was written to get readers, fellow Americans, to feel sympathy and outrage at what has been going on to our immigrant neighbors. To me, I did end up fully feeling this sympathy and outrage to the fullest upon finishing the book.
The author points out alternative arguments in a few instances that the attack on immigrant civil rights is not new in the post-9/11 era, but only grossly exaggerated and magnified. She cites the war on drugs which racially profiled men and women of color in the 1980's, as well as the continued conflict over the US-Mexico border in the southwest, especially California, throughout the 1990's and today. Other evidence cited that the new post-9/11 policies are just magnified excuses for increased racial profiling and suspicion enacted by policies of the last two decades, including the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act and Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which both expanded grounds for deportation to include over fifty categories of crimes and made detention and deportation mandatory minimum sentences (both signed by Clinton in 1996). These are just a few instances painting a picture of what the author feels is wrong with the United States immigration policy and treatment in general going back much further than the crisis following September 11, and will keep going on much longer afterward.
Closing with: "What the detained and deported have to teach us is the lesson of the most disenfranchised of this state. How we treat the people nobody wants to defend, America's least wanted, tells us much about the ability of this system to uphold a free and democratic equal society", Nguyen's book was the most convincing argument I have read since 9/11 that shows me the injustices of a society living in fear of "terrorists", which I just see as a fear of different cultures. The Civil Rights Act may have been passed in the 1960's, but now it seems as if we are just a nation going back in time and breaking promises that have been made for civil liberties for all inhabitants of our country. The book has opened my eyes ever wider to the fact that old and discredited ideas about race, ethnicity, and culture are rapidly rising. The narratives and interviews pulled at my emotions, making me ask myself over and over again, "How can we treat people so inhumanely?" While the ending time line made me ask "How did these policies all get passed without any sort of a public outcry for justice?" Overall, We Are All Suspects Now has earned my respect as being a wonderful and straightforward book that can pull in and eventually open anyone's eyes (even those who normally don't like to read) to the current culture crisis which is now facing the US.
We are all suspects now.......2006-11-27
In the book We are all Suspects Now written by Tram Nguyen, she explains the untold tales of immigrant life in the United States after what happened on September 11th. People of Somali, Muslim, Arab, and South Asian decent tell their stories of detainment, deportation, and discrimination through out all areas of North America crushing their hopes and dreams of a better life for many immigrants in this country.
Nguyen begins her focus of We are all Suspects Now by explaining the happy lives most immigrants had living in the United States. She further explains that many immigrated to the U.S. fleeing poverty and harsh treatments in their homelands or for a better life. The U.S. is where they could fulfill the American dream. Many immigrants came just to work and send money back to their families across sea. Others found good jobs and a safe place to raise their families. These stories of their "dream" land continued on until September 11th. This crises threw the U.S. into a period of discrimination and racial slander not only from ordinary American citizens but also from American government. From then on immigrants lives have been changed and mainly not for the better.
Within a period of about two months after the 9/11 attacks, more than 1,200 immigrants were unfairly detained as "suspects" to the attack with no proof to even convict them. The way that Nguyen explains how these immigrants were detained was very disturbing to me because I was not aware of many of the actions taken, or situations these people were put in until after I had read his book. For example, Nguyen gives details of how they were not even told most of the time that they were being detained or even given the right to an attorney. This lead to many people just "disappearing" in the eyes of their family members and friends. Next the U.S. government took this process a step further by requiring men 16 and older to register in order to find out which immigrants had been living in the U.S. illegally with no green cards or visas.
I believe that Nguyen is an inspiring writer because of the many issues she talks about. She rises above many people by telling these immigrants stories, including people such as Mohommad Butt who have died during this struggling period in American history. Mohommad Butt was the first person to die during detainment and Nguyen recognizes that in her book by making him a hero along with other immigrants of their time. She also includes tales of immigrant leaders who rose above to guide other immigrants to do the right thing in order to prevent deportation and detainment. She even included the harsh trips to Canada when fleeing the United States and how they were sent right back after spending their lives savings to reach this "safe haven."
Nguyen uses these examples along with many others to explain the tragedies occurring to US immigrants after September 11th. She tells her story in such a way that it is almost unbelievable what happened to many of these immigrants. Nguyen not only uses facts against the US but also sympathizes somewhat for the US, giving the reader a better understanding of both sides of the story. To do this she explains that many of these immigrants that were deported had legitimate reasons to be according to United States laws. Many of them were illegal immigrants or had expired visas. Immigrants may have gotten away with this for some time, but it was against the US law so the government was in many ways just enforcing these laws in a stronger way. Nguyen only went so far with this idea because in her writing I believe people are able to understand that these situations could have been handled in a better way. Nguyen also makes us aware that many people were fleeing the borders of Mexico into the United States causing many problems with drug dealing and violence. The people living there, American or not, had to deal with these issues in a very uncomfortable manner including encounters with minutemen and small citizen made "militias" attacking not only the trespassers in their front yards, but them as well.
Nguyen is a very strong writer because of her truthfulness as shown above. In my opinion I feel like Nguyen is a very convincing and relatable writer. She uses very realistic and relevant information throughout her book, which after reading I felt like was not exaggerated or overwhelming. When I first started reading this book I thought it was going to be similar to a dull history novel, but after I started reading more into it, I began to enjoy it more and learned a great deal about the subject of United States immigrants. I thought it was mainly going to be about things I had already known about 9/11, but everything I learned was knew to me. For example, I did not know that the government was being so harsh and racist against these groups of people and was shocked by most of it. These people were just trying to support their families and strive for a better life while America was racially discriminating against them just because of their race and culture. I believe that Nguyen is trying to get this point across in her writing so more people can be aware of these situations and they do not happen again in the future.
Over all, this book was very informative and interesting to me. I learned a lot of information about immigrant life in America. I was very much appalled at the way in which the United States citizens and government handle situations after September 11th. From the stories Nguyen explained I realized that I was somewhat naive and unaware to these situations as I'm sure many others were too.
Immigration, asylum and criminal policies .......2006-06-21
WE ARE ALL SUSPECTS NOW: UNTOLD STORIES FROM IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES AFTER 9/11 is essential reading for any who would understand the changed lives of immigrants in the U.S. after the event. It gathers the personal stories of communities affected by post-9/11 tension and threats to civil liberties, examining immigration, asylum and criminal policies and how these have affected thousands of immigrants past and present. Changes to these policies reflect a shift to the right - and a shift in how immigrant communities are surveyed and managed.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Immigrant Stories After 9/11.......2006-05-09
This book is a collection of stories of prejudice, discrimination and racial profiling brought on by events and government policies after the September 11th attacks on the United States. It explains what some of these immigrants went through both before and after the attacks of September 11th. The author does a good job explaining the unjust detainment and sometimes even the deportment of immigrants around the country.
This book describes in relatively good detail, how these people were living before and after the events and policies after September 11th. It goes into detail on how most of the immigrants had a relatively good life while trying to achieve the American dream. These people had jobs and they were making enough money to live and to send to their families in their own countries. Most of them saved to bring their families to America so they could leave the poverty, war and oppression of their home countries. This all changed on September 11th 2001.
Within the next two months, the government conducted what was called the September 11th roundup. This is when they detained more than twelve hundred Muslim, Arab and South Asian men who were possible terrorist suspects. These men were not given attorneys or told why they were being detained. None of the men that were detained were found of aiding terrorism. This was just the start of the policies that made immigrants fearful that they might be deported from the country they loved back to the country they feared.
The government also had new policies like special registrations that forced men who were sixteen or older to register with the government. This lead to an extremely large number went through deportation hearings and many also were detained. This policy seemed like it was meant to get rid of the immigrants whose visas and green cards were already expired. This would mean that they would go through deportation hearings and most likely would be deported. Most people did not want to register because they knew what was going to happen but one way or another, they would be found out and most likely deported. This was also a tragic thing to happen to a family. It would mean that the man would have to leave his family who were still living in the U.S. It was made even harder because the family would often have to follow the man because they really had no choice in the matter. They would have no money if the male had to leave the country.
There were also some really awful things that were done to the detainees in the prisons. They were not allowed to make any phone calls, not even to their families. Most people were denied the use of a lawyer. They tended to set bail at a high price so the detainees would not be able to get out of jail. If they did have the money, it was hard to tell your family because you were not allowed phone calls and they also moved the detainees all over the place to different locations, sometimes even multiple locations in one day. There were some bad things that were done to the prisoners and I wish that I could say that they were done for a reason but I can't see any logical reason to do any of these things to those people.
The issue that I think is the most severe is the border patrol issue. As an American, I think that it is very alarming that people can just about come into the U.S. from Mexico unnoticed. This seems like it makes us even more susceptible to many different kinds of terrorist threats and should probably be treated as so. If all these migrants can cross the border without being caught, then why couldn't a terrorist? Although the only places where they can cross are in either mountain or desert areas where many people die just trying to have a little piece of the life that we have. In some way it makes me respect and understand just how lucky I really am and how much more worse off I could be.
There is also another part to the story of many immigrants just trying to make it in the free world. There are plenty of immigrants who were forced to seek asylum in Canada because they heard their asylum laws were not as strict as the U.S. and they did not want to register in the U.S. But the laws in Canada were about to change. The U.S. and Canada had both worked together to create similar laws to protect the border. So most of the time when the immigrants made it to the border, the Canadian government would take them right back to the United States. I don't exactly know how I am supposed to feel about this situation. I realize that all these people want is a home but the sudden rush of people trying to get asylum hearings was just not going to happen during these hard times.
This was a very intrusting and enlightening book for me to read. I feel extreme sadness and sympathy for the people who were wrongfully affected by the procedures of these policies that were implemented by the United States government after the tragedy of September 11th. Although I think that for the most part, these procedures needed to be put into effect. Something needed to be done to help prevent another tragedy from occurring, especially on our own soil. These policies are by no means perfect but they are a large stepping-stone for us to start on.
Book Description
Temptations of Power examines the new security dilemma that confronted George W. Bush when terrorists proved for the first time on 9/11 that they could seriously wound even the greatest of military powers on its own soil. The authors argue that the response was influenced by neo-conservative exaggeration of the efficacy of military power and belief in the US ability to change the world. Jackson and Towle advocate for new politics--but not the kind Washington has adopted since 2001.
Customer Reviews:
Reader be Tempted.......2006-11-05
Temptations of Power is the most coherent and least hysterical of the scholarly critiques of U.S. foreign policy under George W. Bush. In a remarkably lucid analysis of the Washington's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the authors waste no time in relieving the reader of his apprehension that this is yet another leftist assault on American power in the world informed above all by the prudish conviction that the powerful, being powerful, can do no good.
If anything, Jackson and Towle can be counted as reluctant anti-Americans who are fundamentally in sympathy with most, if not all, of the enduring foreign policy principles of the United States. It is with the ideologically-driven violation of many of those principles that they take issue. The central thrust of the book is that the Bush administration has been imprudent, both in securing the immediate imperatives of national security in the age of terrorism and in calculating a rank-order of long-term American interests. On the one hand, the administration has been driven by a powerful set of beliefs, at the center of which is a faith in its ability to widen the global ambit of democracy with force. On the other, it has clearly become, among the Western democracies at least, a heretic on the utility of multilateral institutions and patient diplomacy in the pursuit of national objectives. Whereas patience paid off handsomely in the long twilight struggle of the Cold War, impatience has been calling card of the war on terror.
What's more, the administration's military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq (the "sword" of the Bush policy) do not reflect its preference for taking the offensive over the defensive in the war on terror. Chapter Eight on Homeland Insecurity (the "shield") argues that Americans have not only shouldered the burden of two foreign wars but have also been subjected to new and intrusive laws and federal powers on the home front designed to make them feel less vulnerable while delivering little additional safety. Again, the spirit of Jacskon and Towle's criticism is not that each of the new domestic security provisions is inherently ill-considered but rather that the level of domestic security sought by them collectively is, in practical terms, impossible.
Lastly, the United States has committed errors that combine the potential abuse of power with inept diplomacy and public quarrels over the legitimacy of torture. The most glaring example of this is the decision to incarcerate terrorist suspects in a strange legal limbo at Guantanamo Bay --- a decision that the Bush cabinet obviously thought clever when it was taken but which has been, at the very least, a public relations disaster. Many of us anticipated after that awful morning in Lower Manhattan that the effort against terrorism might well involve U.S. intelligence services in subjecting detainees to questioning "under duress." What we did not expect was that any administration would seek public and congressional approval for the practice. One might not accept the authors' prescriptions for a foreign policy gone badly wrong, but it is hard not to nod in agreement with their list of the Washington's ten most grievous errors in the book's concluding chapter. The politics and diplomacy of Guantanamo tempt an eleventh: shrillness.
Jackson and Towle have written the most convincing indictment of the Great War on Terror this reviewer has yet encountered. It is a sobering assessment of the political impulses behind, as well as the diplomatic consequences flowing from, the Bush administration's policies. But the book is more. The chapter dealing with the challenges to American hegemony arising in China and the Muslim world is especially effective in stressing that the gap of incomprehension between Western and Islamic societies today is vastly wider and deeper than that dividing democratic capitalism from communist totalitarianism during the Cold War. Considered from this perspective, Jackson and Towle have given us a snap-shot of the deterioration of international relations six years into an already troubling century. It is not happy news, but it is a supplementary reason for serious students of global politics to read this book very soon.
Book Description
In this new study, Dr. James Lebovic challenges the widely held view that many current US adversaries cannot be deterred. He maintains that deterrence is not a relic of the Cold War period and that it should shape US policies toward even so-called rogue states and terror groups. Prof Lebovic makes the case that deterrence principles continue to apply by focusing upon the "three pillars" of the Bush administration's national security policy:
(1) missile defense which preoccupied the administration until September 11, 2001;
(2) preemption which became the US focus with the September 11 attacks and US success in overthrowing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan; and
(3) homeland security which the administration has portrayed as more a natural response to threat than an aspect of policy that must be reconciled with the other pillars.
The author asserts that bad offenses and defenses have been endemic to the current US policy approach. As a consequence, US policymakers have pursued policies that require the US to do everything, as if more is always better, without adequate concern for resource trade-offs, overreach, and unintended consequences.
This book will be of great interest to students of US foreign policy, national and international security, terrorism and international relations in general.
Book Description
In Film and Television After 9/11, editor Wheeler Winston Dixon and eleven other distinguished film scholars discuss the production, reception, and distribution of Hollywood and foreign films after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and examine how moviemaking has changed to reflect the new world climate.
While some contemporary films offer escapism, much of mainstream American cinema since 9/11 is centered on the desire for a “just war” in which military reprisals and escalation of warfare appear to be both inevitable and justified. Films of 2002 such as Black Hawk Down, Collateral Damage, and We Were Soldiers demonstrate a renewed audience appetite for narratives of conflict, reminiscent of the wave of filmmaking that surrounded American involvement in World War II.
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon galvanized the American public initially, yet film critics wonder how this will play out over time. Film and Television After 9/11 is the first book to provide original insights into topics ranging from the international reception of post-9/11 American cinema, re-viewing films of our shared cinematic past in light of the attacks, and exploring parallels between post-9/11 cinema and World War II-era productions.
Customer Reviews:
my son used this book for a social studies project on 9/11.......2005-04-18
and he took finalist honors in the state competition....this book is very impressive with it's breadth and depth of study....definitely worthwhile reading
Book Description
The United States and South Korea enjoy many benefits form close security cooperation but the relationship, although not currently endangered, is shifting.
Book Description
In her latest book, Kristina Borjesson once again leaves pundits, media critics, and Monday-morning quarterbacks behind. Zeroing in on a stunning lineup of first-hand sources, she presents a unique and utterly fascinating record of self-examination by some of America's top working journalists.
Focusing on the post 9/11 crisis period, Borjesson has interviewed ABC's Ted Koppel, Hearst Newspaper's Helen Thomas, Paul Krugman of the New York Times, Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, Associated Press President/CEO Tom Curley, Harpers publisher John MacArthur, Peter Arnett, and many others. This collection of masterful interviews unveils a journalistic environment that rivals any long-running soap opera on television. Filled with astonishing personal stories, conflict, and drama, Feet to the Fire gives readers the rare opportunity to walk a mile in the shoes of this nation's most powerful journalists and news executives. Most of them have spent long stretches of their professional lives in what can only be described as pressure-cooker environments ranging from deadly war zones to high-rise corporate offices.
As a serious, first-hand account of contemporary mainstream journalism, the book has no equal. Mindful of the broader historical context and the value of comparing the coverage of recent conflicts to Vietnam War coverage, Borjesson has included long interviews with Vietnam-era reporters who are still working today, like Peter Arnett. Arnett won a Pulitzer Prize as an Associated Press reporter in Vietnam, was CNN's star war correspondent during the first Gulf War, and became a lightning rod while reporting on the second Gulf War.
As an oral account of the current era of crisis, as a deeper and far more insightful view of this nation's most accomplished messengers and the landscape in which they operate, Feet to the Fire is nothing short of a tour-de-force.
Interview subjects include: Ted Koppel, Helen Thomas, Tom Curley (President/CEO Associated Press), Peter Arnett, Paul Krugman (New York Times), Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus (Washington Post), Deborah Amos (NPR war correspondent), Jon Alpert (independent producer/cameraman), John MacArthur, Tom Yellin (executive producer for Peter Jennings), Chris Hedges, and James Bamford (National Security reporter).
Customer Reviews:
Very demanding, but read it nonetheless.......2006-09-21
Quite frankly, I don' think I've ever read a books as important as Feet to the Fire. At least not while trying to make sense of the contemporary conflict between the West (i.e. North America) and the Middle East with its numerous Muslim countries and inhabitants.
In this thorough 627 pages long book, Kristina Borjesson interviews the key players in the North American journalism and media scene. And she does so using straight-forward and honest questions. Except the current war against Iraq, which dominates the greater part of the book, other things such as the Bush administration, news reporting in the aftermath of 9/11, censorship in the media, and much, MUCH more. She's never afraid to ask both controversial and troubling questions, in other words those very questions that many people have been thinking about but never given an answer to. And luckily for us, the interviewees are willing to answer.
Of the book's more than 600 pages, most contains paragraph after paragraph of useful information. It goes without saying that a complete summary of a book with a scale as massive as this one can never be accomplished in a short book review, but one thing is certain: in case you do manage to read the entire thing you'll get a new and sometimes very troubling look at the state of world politics and warfare. Forget the impersonal images you've seen in the news and never mind the stale reporting coming out of most newspapers: here you'll hear from the people who've actually been there, who've been in the heat of gruesome battle; the people who'll tell you just how tragic this reality really is.
I could spend the rest of the night talking about all the big names and all the important stories found in the book, but then this review would probably never come to an end. Instead, I must emphasize the importance of Borjesson's work.
Because that's really what's so great about this book. Both Americans and Europeans (and, of course, the people in the Middle East) will learn things from reading it, but they will learn DIFFERENT things. Americans will learn how much of what they're being told by their own media often is just incorrect, but not only that, they'll also come closer to an understanding as to why people all over the world tend to hate them as much as they really do. It's a tough thing to learn, but reality is seldom beautiful, and it won't get a whole lot better with ignorance.
It's well-known that a great deal of the European population (along with the rest of the world) look at Americans as a whole as arrogant, fanatically patriotic, and extremely close-minded (even though all of us who've visited that country know this is not the case with every single American), and Feet of the Fire will help explain why these twisted images have become so prevalent.
You won't finish this book in an afternoon while relaxing under the sun at your local beach. It's a very demanding book that you'll have to devote a lot of hours to, but please, don't let this scare you from buying it and reading it. It's much too important to miss.
A Rare Look at the Media.......2006-08-15
As a broadcast journalist I read this book to understand how my colleagues could have been so laxed in reporting and investigating the issues, post 9/11, that led to war with Iraq. I came away not only with a greater understanding of those issues, but with insights both sobering and frightening about the profession I work in. This book is not just for journalists, but for anyone who believes in freedom of the press and for people who care to understand how things really get (or do not get) reported.
A must read for anyone puzzled by reporting in the USA.......2006-08-12
Author Borjesson strings together fascinating interviews. The words of David Martin(CBS) and Ted Koppel(ABC) go a long way to explain how most big media FAILED us in the march to war in Iraq.
Conversely, John MacArthur of Harpers, Chris Hedges at the NY Times, Juan Cole and James Bamford (among many) give insightful perspectives on US reporting.
Bamford is especially worthy of praise. His brutal honesty on the topic of Israeli misdeeds will irk some, but Bamford's words and his terrific piece of CURRENT reporting on efforts to start a war with Iran shows us that all is not yet lost when it comes to reporting what the public NEEDS to know.
A solid, informative, behind the scenes look at journalism .......2006-08-09
In the interests of full disclosure, I worked as an editorial consultant on Feet to the Fire. Having said this, I can't begin to emphasize enough, how solidly reported, how thoroughly researched and how much care was taken with each and every interview in this book. I believe the book achieves an incisive and eye opening look at how the events of 9/11 affected 21 of the most renowned national security and war correspondents in the US. One of the things I like about the book is how you can pick it up, read any chapter, in any order, and you will be immediately drawn in to that individual journalists' mind set and point of view. In these days when greater transparency is a baseline requirement in journalism, Feet to the Fire really provides an important service and allows the American people to get inside the heads of the people who bring us the information without which the American democracy would not function.
Very unbalanced.......2006-08-06
This book has a bunch of interviews, so I would normally expect it to be okay. But it isn't. There are twenty-one chapters, and we see interviews with people such as Peter Arnett, Chris Hedges, Juan Cole, and many others.
Still, I'd like to focus on the interview with James Bamford, and the praise given for him. Bamford gets 48 pages, and that's not good. And I don't see any reasonable people balancing what he says in this book.
Bamford has written outrageously afactual and illogical nonsense about the USS Liberty. So it is no surprise that when in this book, Bamford is asked whether Israel is a touchy subject, he says that it is enormously so. And he complains that "you can't talk about Israel in the press without somebody going crazy." Of course, given what he says about Israel, I'm not surprised. And Bamford himself seems to be one of those who are going crazy.
When Bamford gets asked if the reason for all the sensitivity about Israel is that Israel is protecting our interests, he replies "What interests? They're the cause of all the problems."
That comment is, of course garbage. It is like someone with a fever calling a thermometer the cause of all the problems. Israel is a small nation that is under attack. It's not the cause of all the problems in the Middle East. And since it is not a cause of major problems there, pressuring Israel or destroying Israel will not solve anything.
A book that can be so misleading about this topic is tough to trust on anything. I don't recommend it.
Product Description
Presents a dramatic account of the vital role of the Coast Guard on September 11, 2001 and in the following weeks. Includes bibliographical references and an index.
Average customer rating:
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Security and Safety in Los Angeles High Rise Building After 9/11
Rae Archibald
Manufacturer: RAND Corporation
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0833031848 |
Book Description
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater LosAngeles and the Office of the City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, asked RAND to provide a study on the threats to and possible responses from the owners and managers of Los Angeles high-rise buildings in the aftermath of 9/11. The city attorney's office was also interested in potential public policy changes or programs that government might undertake to improve the security and safety of occupants of high-rise buildings in Los Angeles. This documented briefing identifies generic threats and exemplary practices in Los Angeles and elsewhere (selecting Chicago as an example), discusses potential actions after an event, and suggests potential preparations that local government and the private sector might want to consider. Recommendations for Los Angeles include reviewing evacuation plans and exercising them frequently, conducting and regularly updating vulnerability and threat assessments, establishing protocols and realistic drills for response, educating tenants about their responsibilities, and taking advantage of both low-technology and high-technology security measures.
Download Description
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater LosAngeles and the Office of the City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, asked RAND to provide a study on the threats to and possible responses from the owners and managers of Los Angeles high-rise buildings in the aftermath of 9/11. The city attorney's office was also interested in potential public policy changes or programs that government might undertake to improve the security and safety of occupants of high-rise buildings in Los Angeles. This documented briefing identifies generic threats and exemplary practices in Los Angeles and elsewhere (selecting Chicago as an example), discusses potential actions after an event, and suggests potential preparations that local government and the private sector might want to consider. Recommendations for Los Angeles include reviewing evacuation plans and exercising them frequently, conducting and regularly updating vulnerability and threat assessments, establishing protocols and realistic drills for response, educating tenants about their responsibilities, and taking advantage of both low-technology and high-technology security measures.
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