BOOK REVIEW

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES
Knowing the Enemy, Speaking the Truth & Choosing to Win the War Against Radial Islam
By William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn

OVERVIEW: "Crucial." "Timely." "Brave." In this splendid book, William J. Bennett and Seth Leibsohn examine the devolution of America's post - 9/11 tenacity and how this country's well-meaning culture of religious tolerance, coupled with soft and apologetic political leadership, has placed us squarely in the pocket of radical Islamists who have made clear their intention to obliterate everything we value. America's devotion to political correctness has crippled its ability to accurately interpret and respond to the motives of its fiercest enemies. Unless we change course and re-engage the fight, the costs of our tolerance will prove tragic and immeasurable. The Fight of Our Lives helps readers refocus, to reframe and understand the threats we face. By surveying and explaining the current scene, Bennett and Leibsohn point the way to a future in which our enemies are properly acknowledged and firmly opposed.

AUTHORS: Dr. William J. Bennett is a best-selling author, educator, and speaker. Host of the top-ten nationally syndicated radio show Bill Bennett's Morning in America, he is also the Washington Fellow of the Claremont Institute. Serving as secretary of education and chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under President Reagan and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Bush, today Bennett is a regular contributor to CNN and has contributed to America's leading newspapers, magazines, and television shows. He is the author and editor of seventeen books. Seth Leibsohn is a Fellow with the Claremont Institute, a frequent commentator and writer on both domestic and foreign policy issues, and a managing partner of Leibsohn and Associates, a Washington, DC based consulting firm.

MY REVIEW: Fouad Ajami, Johns Hopkins university professor and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, said this: "Bill Bennett has been a brilliant sentry in our nation's cultural life. In this luminous and spirited book, he and Seth Leibsohn sound the alarm on behalf of us all. America can prevail in its struggle against radical Islamism, and they show us exactly how. A book for this moment, written with poise, and suffused with love of country." I agree with him completely! In this excellent book we are called to wake up because we have forgotten the mortal threat to America that is radical Islam.There is something on almost every page I feel a need to quote. But since I can't do that I urge you−I beg you to read this book and share it with others. "Not long after 9/11 we were, as a people, angry. Not vicious or violent, but angry. Today we have become sad and depressed and confused, and too many have replaced our concept of evil with all manner of diagnoses of syndromes and root causes. Too many of us have indeed either whitewashed the Islamic threat, turned our heads away from it, ignored it, or, in some cases, bought the excuse of it−namely that there are serious Muslim grievances with America and they are justified, or that, in the absence of such justification, they need appeasement and understanding." This next quote I consider one of the most important in the book: ""It is not just the terrorist threat that we have to deal with now but also the grievance and apologetic culture under it, the culture that has taken such a strong hold in an increasingly enfeebled West. It may, in fact, prove the greater threat because it steals our greatest protection against terrorism: moral clarity. Where once our law and personal responsibility was commonplace (as well as common sense), a new psychology has taken hold in Western culture. Where once we punished and fought, we now psychoanalyze and debate root causes."

This is a book written by two scholarly men, filled with facts, but written in a way that anyone can understand. I urge you to get this book as soon as possible.

(I was given this book by Thomas Nelson Publishers for an honest review.)