A Political Warning Disguised as Thriller - New York Times

A Political Warning Disguised as Thriller - New York Times:

A Political Warning Disguised as Thriller

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: November 29, 2005

Here is the plot of the former counterterrorism czar Richard A. Clarke’s new book, “The Scorpion’s Gate”: there is trouble again in the Middle East, and the United States is on the verge of getting involved in another war. An arrogant, gung-ho secretary of defense and his eager-beaver under secretary are intent on regime change in a certain Arab country with huge oil reserves. They charge that this nation’s government has ties with Al Qaeda and is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons. The “SecDef,” who has a taste for pre-emptive wars and a simultaneous desire to reconfigure the armed services, is regarded with skepticism by many members of the uniformed military, but he enjoys the confidence of the president. When it becomes clear that intelligence estimates do not support the SecDef’s theories - and in fact suggest that his invasion plans could further destabilize the Middle East - a small band of intelligence analysts and military officers decide to see if they can thwart the rush to war.
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John Earle

Richard A. Clarke
THE SCORPION’S GATE
By Richard A. Clarke
305 pages. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. $24.95.
Readers
Forum: Book News and Reviews

In his much-discussed 2004 nonfiction bestseller “Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror,” Mr. Clarke criticized the Bush administration’s handling of the war on terror and its willful determination to go to war against Iraq, but this time he is not talking about real events - he is writing fiction.

Though Mr. Clarke’s fast, twisty plot could easily be turned into an implausible Tom Cruise action-adventure movie, “The Scorpion’s Gate” is less interesting as a Tom Clancy-esque thriller than as a kind of parable. Indeed its often absurd plot is primarily a vehicle for its author to lay out his views about the current Iraq war

I’ve been getting lots of searches on this book. I’m not planning to read it, though … sounds like not a very good novel.

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