Product Description: Several outstanding books have been written about the road to September 11. The Search for Al Qaeda has a different mission. While it does review how al Qaeda was created and developed, it focuses more closely on what has happened to the terrorist network since that awful day. According to Riedel, al Qaeda's ultimate goals are to drive America from the Muslim world (the ummah); to destroy Israel; and to create a jihadist caliphate along the lines of the Ottoman Empire at its height. The book reveals al Qaeda's multi-pronged strategy for accomplishing those goals; draw America into the type of "bleeding wars" that drove the Soviets from Afghanistan, build a safe haven for al Qaeda in Pakistan; develop other "franchises" in the Islamic world that can overthrow pro-American regimes; and conduct more Western attacks along the lines of 9-11 or the transit bombings in Madrid and London. Bruce Riedel is an expert on the Middle East and South Asia, with 30 years of policymaking experience in regional diplomacy and counterterrorism. He draws on this experience and firsthand knowledge in profiling the four most important figures in the al Qaeda movement: Osama bin Laden, its creator and charismatic leader: ideologue Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian co-leader of al Qaeda and its principal spokesman; Abu Musaib al Zarqawi, the tenacious leader of al Qaeda in Iraq until his death in 2006; and Mullah Omar, Taliban host to al Qaeda. These profiles provide the base from which Riedel delivers a much clearer understanding of al Qaeda and what must be done to counter it.
Learn from the real expert If you are tired of the same old talking heads blathering on TV about things they don't really know about, this is the book for you. Bruce Riedel is the real expert on Al Qaeda and these regions that are so important to US national security. The book reads easily, even with the names that are unfamiliar to the US reader, and communicates a narrative that flows and makes sense. Mr. Riedel could go on for hundreds of pages with the knowledge and background he has, but instead chose to make every page count in a concise account with less than 200 pages. Before I read this book, the whole Al Qaeda-Taliban-Muslim Brotherhood-Sudan-Shiite-Sunni-Iran-Wahabism thing was a morass for me, but this book connected the dots. If only the Bush Administration had chosen to follow this reasoned approach of "knowing your enemy" that won the Cold War, instead of lumping all these issues into a war on "terrorism," the US would be more secure today. This book falls into the "every American needs to read this" category, to understand the nature of the threats and challenges we face!
Are the solutions possible? This is a fascinating and important account of the whole Middle East problem with a focus on Al Qaeda by someone who has had firsthand experience in the region for the last thirty years. Riedel served in the CIA for thirty years, advised three Presidents and was also an adviser to NATO for three years, from 2003 to 2006. He has the credentials and the credibility.
The bulk of the book--Chapters Two through Five--treats Zawahiri, Osama (as he calls him), Mullah Omar and Zarqawi. Any reader will definitely learn something he/she didn't know about them from these chapters.
However, the real heart of this book is Chapter Seven, How to Defeat al Qaeda. I have no doubt that Riedel is making his suggestions based on extensive knowledge of the areas, but as I read them, I wondered at the feasibility of many of his proposals.
First, he talks of breaking the narrative of Al Qaeda. At the heart of this narrative/grievance is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. His solution is the two-state one, with Israel abandoning almost of the West Bank and Gaza. His plan is for the 500,000 Israeli settlers to abandon their settlements, and for Palestinian refugees to have the choice of returning to the West Bank or receiving compensation from some international fund (the cost estimated at between $45-$50 billion). He doesn't discuss who is going to compensate the Israeli settlers. Furthermore, Hamas must be a part of the process. In addition, Jerusalem will become an international city once again.
Is all or any of this possible?
Second, for Afghanistan, he wants a Marshall Plan (who's going to pay for it?) to reconstruct the country and a buildup of their army and police force. He actually believes that better roads will lead the poppy farmers to abandon growing poppies and turn to produce. A recent report on the Taliban in Rolling Stone (October 30, 2008) makes Afghanistan sound like a madhouse where all the inmates are armed and in control.
Last, Pakistan he identifies as "the most important and difficult nation to deal with in order to destroy Al Qaeda". . .. Yet, his suggestion is not to support any more dictators and to let democracy rule even though throughout the book he is concerned about the shawdowy role of ISI (the Pakistan intelligence service) in bombings, assassinations and even Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear bombs. Is all this going to change because they have another election?
For Kashmir, he realizes that India will never withdraw, but he still suggests giving the Valley of Kashmir and Srinigar to Pakistan. Will India ever agree to this?
Riedel has many other ideas that may work eventually--e.g., enlist other Arab countries in the fight against Al Qaeda--but I have listed only those suggestions that I find problematic.
This is a very informative book and (Chapters One through Six) a fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the problems in that part of the world. It's just that his solutions sound more like a wish-list than real, grounded possibilities that the next President could act on. I hope I'm wrong.
An Elusive Target This book provides a very detailed description of that mysterious phenomenon called `al Qaeda' and offers a strategy to counter the threat that it poses to the U.S. and its allies. Bruce Riedel is by most rational standards an expert on Middle Eastern affairs. He has spent the better part of his government career engaged in the research and analysis of the Middle East and now resides at the Brookings Institute as one of their stable of expert.
Riedel provides a broad outline of al Qaeda including brief biographies of Osma bin Laden and his principal lieutenant Ayman al Zawahari. Perhaps more importantly he identifies the ideology behind the strategic thinking of al Qaeda. In the course of doing so he also explains the close alliance between al Qaeda and the still active Taliban religious movement in Afghanistan. In Riedel's analysis the strategic goal of al Qaeda is to drive the West from the Realm of Islam (Dar al Islam), to establish a Sharia based Caliphate over world wide Islam, and of course to eliminate Israel. Fortunately the majority of Muslims do not necessarily agree with this goal. Still it is a fact that many Muslims see the days of the Baghdad Caliphate (circa 800-1200 CE) as a golden age and often reflect that the age secular nationalism has brought Muslims more humiliations than triumphs.
Riedel's strategy for defeating al Qaeda and its cult of violence is multi-tiered and correctly centers on Afghanistan and Pakistan not Iraq. And he views the struggle as much ideological as military. In his opinion the present administration of George W. Bush blundered badly in its efforts to deal with the continuing threat from al Qaeda and indeed with Operation Iraqi Freedom did exactly what bin Laden had hoped the U.S. would do.
Riedel is clearly not a supporter of the Bush Administration and is in point of fact an advisor to Barrack Obama. Nonetheless this does not invalidate his arguments for how to cope with al Qaeda and to prosecute the real war on terror. This reviewer does not agree with all of his prescriptions for dealing with the al Qaeda Menace, but certainly admits his expertise and subject matter knowledge.
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