...ONLY gave it FOUR stars because it's "missing is the personal touch that tells us who Dr. Rice is as a person."
Obeying the four paragraph rule here...read the whole thing at this link:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2BV6GSRJ6645V/ref=cm_cr_dp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=030758786X&nodeID=283155&tag=&linkCode=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411rtRUXkPL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpgThis is one of the most difficult books I've read --- not because of poor writing or lack of clarity, but because foreign policy during President George W. Bush's administration will remain controversial for the rest of our lives. Bush and his people are judged primarily in terms of the overwhelmingly polarizing Iraq War. Either you believe that the war was justified because Saddam Hussein posed a direct threat to the USA or you believe that "W" was at best a dumb cowboy and at worst a "war criminal" who led us into a gratuitous war.
If you believe the war was justified then everything that Dr. Rice --- who served as Bush's National Security Advisor in his first term and his Secretary of State in the second term --- writes in this book will make perfect sense to you, especially Condi's assessment of the necessity for going to war:
***
Perhaps the most meaningful aspect of this book has to be inferred from considering it as a whole. Condi and other members of Bush's Administration came to Washington in January 2001 at an optimistic time, expecting to continue the work of improving relations with Russia, eliminating most nuclear weapons, expanding trade with Latin America and Asia, and furthering a world of peace and prosperity. These initiatives were barely underway when the 9/11 attack broke from the blue, thrusting them into the center of the long War on Terror with its difficult military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan and with controversial judicial issues such as detaining terrorists at Gitmo. 9/11 was a tragedy that interrupted their desired agendas as much as it disrupted everyone else's.
I rate this book four stars because it tells Condi Rice's story as National Security Advisor and Secretary of state with clarity. What's missing is the personal touch that tells us who Dr. Rice is as a person. I heard Dr. Rice give exactly that kind of personal story when Sean Hannity asked her on his Fox show if she thought it was likely that Democracy would take root in Libya after Moamar Kaddafi's removal. Dr. Rice answered (paraphrasing): "When I was growing up in the early 1960s my father couldn't register to vote in racially segregated Birmingham, Alabama. I grew up to become the Secretary of State. Democracy takes time, but it is the only road to freedom." The book would have been improved by Dr. Rice including some of these moving insights from her own inspiring life's story. She chose instead to write the book clinically, as a lawyer or professional historian would right it. Nothing at all wrong with that approach, but it is a tedious read.
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