Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters

Richard A. Clarke

Oct 2009 · Harper Collins

About this ebook

Richard Clarke's dramatic statement to the grieving families during the 9/11 Commission hearings touched a raw nerve across America. Not only had our government failed to prevent the 2001 terrorist attacks but it has proven itself, time and again, incapable of handling the majority of our most crucial national-security issues, from Iraq to Katrina and beyond. This is not just a temporary failure of any one administration, Mr. Clarke insists, but rather an endemic problem, the result of a pattern of incompetence that must be understood, confronted, and prevented.

In Your Government Failed You, Clarke goes far beyond terrorism to examine the inexcusable chain of recurring U.S. government disasters and strategic blunders in recent years. Drawing on his thirty years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community, Clarke gives us a privileged, if gravely troubling, look into the debacle of government policies, discovering patterns in the failures and offering ways to halt the catastrophic cycle once and for all.

Ratings and reviews

Conservatives generally refuse to admit their errors or mistakes, lest they risk appearing weak. But Clarke took unqualified responsibility and apologized before congress, shouldering responsibility undeservedly for attacks he saw coming and risked his career trying in vain to get the W. Bush administration to act before 9/11. When Condi Rice finally met with him literally hours before the attack, her demeanor of indifference sent the clear message that Bush's team didn't see attacks on US soil as plausible

About the author

Richard A. Clarke, a veteran of thirty years in national security and over a decade in the White House, is now the CEO of a cyber-security consulting firm. He is the author of seven previous books, including the bestsellers Against All Enemies and Cyber War.