Tag Archives: robert pape

How to defeat Al Qaeda

The cover of Bruce Riedel’s The Search for Al Qaeda shows a group of armed men working their way up a hillside overlooking a beautiful valley that stretches away to rolling hills. It captures the wonder and the tragedy of Afghanistan in one frame.

The book itself is similarly crisp, packing a wide-ranging history of Al Qaeda and its key figures into only 150 pages of moderate size print. It is penned by an ex-CIA man of thirty years service who was frequently closely involved with the figures and events painted in the book, but not so closely as to make the reader fear it is more a justification of his career than a fair account of events.

Posted in Books and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 3 Comments
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  • Tim
    @PM. Yes, allowing a LOT more houses to be built would reduce wealth inequality dramatically. We should aim to return to the c1997 price to income ratios - whic...
  • Peter Davies
    and building more houses of course....
  • Peter Davies
    The rising property market contributed more to the impoverishment of the poor than the enrichment of the rich. It is owner occupiers who hold the greatest propo...
  • PM
    @ Tim, You may be technically correct with your argument but it doesn't change the fact that we have become very much more unequal in recent decades. The ...
  • Mick Taylor
    @ColinMurphy. Yes and you could close all the tax loopholes and greatly reduce the huge number of pages in the tax codes that take a highly qualified accountant...