The Road to Terror

The Road to TerrorThe Road to Terror: How Bill Clinton Created Al Qaeda, William J. Clinton, and How He Helped Unleash an Unprecedented War on Terror, by Alex Constantine, is the book that got me thinking about the serious shortcomings of his foreign policy. A number of his essay topics in this book serve as a concise and sound basis for future conduct of foreign policy. In fact, I found his discussion on the US invasion of Iraq to be insightful and factual. He certainly offers an argument for President Bush's policies to achieve the goal of eliminating the basis of the terrorist network.It is quite interesting to see that he begins his Introduction with, 'I started out as a young lawyer working on civil rights cases,' and then immediately goes on to say that he soon learned that he did not like the world and he left law school and started a family. Of course, he mentions in passing that his father had been a communist, but we soon realize that Bill is telling us that he was doing so mething very different from his father. The fact is that his father was in fact a liberal and 'In the best way possible' according to the elder Bill. However, by the time Bill reached college he had changed his mind about everything. Of course, by then he had become a great leader in politics.Bill's earlier topics include President Kennedy, the Clinton Administration, George W. Bush, and the Obama Administration. All of them were basically negative in their assessments of the previous Presidents and administrations. Of course, he does discuss his early political involvement, but other than that he never mentions his role in the early 1980s.In The Road to Terror, Bill talks about how much President Bush has changed in terms of foreign policy. He describes how the United States has become embroiled in a series of unnecessary wars. And he makes the statement that if people had known then what they know now, they would have voted differently. He mentions some specific cases where we wen t into war in the name of democracy.The real problem with Bill's essay topic, which makes it no better than any other book on foreign policy is that he fails to mention any details about the Algerian War. He doesn't even refer to the fact that it was his administration that forced a reluctant French government to give the go ahead to the invasion. We were supporting the French war against terrorism in Algeria before the trip was ever made.In fact, he does not refer to his predecessor's open admission of ignorance in matters of war. Bill Clinton said in reference to the Afghan war, 'we didn't lose a single soldier in Afghanistan.' A clear admission of failure to learn about the realities of war.The other important issue is the failure to provide the facts. Why was the United States responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center? We launched an expensive bombing campaign and the World Trade Center collapsed at almost free-fall speed. However, after the fact, the Bush Administrat ion falsely claimed that Osama Bin Laden himself brought down the building.There was no chance to get accurate information about the collapse of the buildings or the terrorists, in the minutes before the attack, either on video or photographs. Bill was more than able to provide these facts to his readers, but failed to do so. His essay topics were a disappointment, and it is difficult to figure out how he can claim the data is accurate, when the information provided was so sketchy.