Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West [Hardcover]

Michael A. Ledeen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

From Accomplice to Evil: “The world is simmering in the familiar rhetoric and actions of movements and regimes—from Hezbollah and al Qaeda to the Iranian Khomeinists and the Saudi Wahhabis—who swear to destroy us and others like us, and we are repeating the errors of the recent past. Like their 20th-century predecessors, they openly proclaim their intentions, and carry them out whenever and wherever they can. Like our 20th-century predecessors, we rarely take them seriously or act accordingly.”

Acknowledging the existence and actions of evil enemies means accepting that we are at war, and then designing and con duct - ing a strategy to win. Accomplice to Evil takes a com pre hensive look at the errors we have made in the past when dealing with a mounting enemy force, why we’ve refused to acknowledge the implications of a rising evil, and how we can defeat the forces that threaten us today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Alone among Western pundits, Michael Ledeen anticipated the events of June, 2009 in Iran, explained them in careful detail, warned our leaders that they must prepare for them, and proposed policies that would have been effective.  Accomplice to Evil is a rare book indeed:  a prophecy that was abundantly fulfilled, and a guide to those who, God willing, will act more wisely in the future." 
--R. James Woolsey, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

About the Author

MICHAEL A. LEDEEN, a noted political analyst, is a Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He is the author of The Iranian Time Bomb, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, and Tocqueville on American Character, and he is a contributor to The Wall Street Journal. He lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Truman Talley Books (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312570694
• ISBN-13: 978-0312570699
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moral Clarity Epitomized., December 13, 2009

By 

A. Knepper "Quality Reviews!" (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West (Hardcover)

Ignore the troll reviewer. Michael Ledeen has moral clarity, willing to call evil by its name. Ali Khamenei, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the lunatics running the Iranian regime mean what they say. Ledeen's message is this: if we want to show that we have learned from history, we will confront these monsters -- not because we want to fight, but because we have to. "There are none so blind as those who will not see," he reminds us. So true.

Anything Ledeen writes on Iran is a must-read. Get this!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Side Are You On?, December 28, 2009

By 

George Gilder (Tyringham, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West (Hardcover)

In an amazing prophetic book written early this year well before its thesis was affirmed by uproarious millions on the streets of Tehran, Ledeen vindicates his decades of uncanny analysis of the apocalyptic cult that rules Iran.

As he points out, revolutions have succeeded the Ukraine, Georgia, the Philippines, Lebanon, South Africa, and even the Soviet Union where the KGB and Stasi failed to suppress the opposition. With concerted aid from the US and Israel, revolution can triumph in Iran as well. He points to evidence of the people's acute demoralization, signaled by the collapse of Iranian fertility since 1980 from between 5.6 in cities and 8.4 in rural areas to sub replacement levels today. Most Iranians hate their leaders.

The key to success is not some feckless campaign using sanctions and diplomacy. This well worn approach will reliably strengthen and legitimate the regime while draping their nuclear and missile programs with a pettifogging cloak of legalism like the one applied by obsequious UN shysters in North Korea. The key is overthrowing the regime. Make them recall vividly what happened to Saddam. Ledeen now believes that Iran is replete with rebel leaders and that U.S. or Israeli support would be welcomed.

Ledeen's theme is the perennial blindness of the enlightened world to the burgeoning darkness. He pillories the willingness of respectable experts to succumb to the devil's wiles of self-denial in a murk of relativism in which evil remains invisible and thus victorious and even ascendant despite its pathetic actual vulnerability to a still hugely more powerful and virtuous West.

The threat today is Iran and its allies in the global jihad, Shiite and Sunni alike (Ledeen usefully refutes the silly idea that Iran's kleptocratic mullahs refrain out of theocratic nuance from alliance with any available horde of antisemites). But Ledeen is correct that their cause encompasses many more nearby accomplices. Crucial are the bearers of the Oslo syndrome of compulsive peace processing that today are mobilizing public sentiment, legal machinations, and military maneuvers to render Israel an international pariah pickeled and parcelled for destruction by its enemies.

I began reading this book impulsively at midnight after taking a sleeping pill and finished it at four thirty a.m. I assure you from experience that no pill or UN placebo or State Department smarm or stupid self-destructive program of syrupy sanctions can save you from Ledeen's imperious challenge. What side are you on anyway?

George Gilder

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An extremely important read, February 2, 2010

By 

Winston "Iran Blogger/Activist" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West (Hardcover)

Dr. Michael Ledeen has been the most vocal supporter of democracy and freedom in Iran in the past several years. No one can claim he has not been out there defending the cause of freedom for the Iranian people. In this book, yet again, he lays out the path for freedom in Iran and stability in the region and the world. Ledeen argues why the western world should fight this evil tyranny. And this is an important read in a very crucial year when Iranians are out in the street demanding change and western governments sitting on their hands doing nothing to help the people of Iran. This book must be on the reading list of all top government officials in the western world from Paris to Berlin, Rome and beyond. Michael Ledeen has the moral courage and clarity to say what no one else has dared to say so far. He is right to argue that the free world must aid the dissidents and support meaningful change in Iran. His vision is now ever more clear. Read this book and pass it on to your friends. 5/5