Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Cherry Picking

The other day, as I was perusing the Air America Minnesota web site, I happened upon their Book Club for progressive readers. Along with expected fare from the likes of Franken, Rich, Brock, Alterman, Conason, Gore, and Wallis, I was surprised to find The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. I was especially surprised to find it under the heading:

The Bush Administration's Failure To Get Tough On Al-Qaeda:

While Wright's book is generally non-partisan in tone, he doesn't shy away from exposing the failures of our political leaders to take the threat of Al-Qaeda seriously enough and act forcefully against it prior to 9/11. If you're going to recommend the book as a source for information on the Bush Administration's eight months of failure pre-9/11, you should recognize that it also is a damning indictment of the EIGHT YEARS of similiar failures under President Clinton.

However, it is encouraging to see Air America recommend "The Looming Tower" (the only book that also appears on our reading recommendations) to its listeners. If they actually read it, they might realize the true nature of the threat we still face and that the war that we are currently engaged in is indeed much more than a bumper-sticker slogan.

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