Finishing Business: Ten Steps to Defeat Global Terror [Hardcover]

Harlan K. Ullman (Author), Wesley Clark (Afterword), Newt Gingrich (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1591149061 | ISBN-13: 978-1591149064 | Publication Date: October 2004 | Edition: 1St Edition

A national security and homeland defense adviser sounds the alarm in this new book, a follow up to his highly touted Unfinished Business: Afghanistan, the Middle East and Beyond--Defusing the Dangers to America's Security. Here Harlan Ullman warns that the United States is fighting a war it does not understand and waging it in the wrong places against the wrong people with flawed objectives. He advises that our country will not be safe until we understand that the threat is not terror but its underlying causes and the political motivations that are using terror as a tactic. Ullman describes terror as a symptom not a cause and argues that unless the causes of terror are rectified or neutralized, waging a war against it will fare not better than wars on drugs, poverty, crime, and other social ills. He defines the danger as a political ideology, clothed in a perverse interpretation of a religion with 1.3 billion followers, that is intent on establishing some form of a fundamentalist state, with or without borders, by relying on Saudi oil money and Pakistani nuclear weapons to sustain and protect it. The United States will prevail, he says, only if it makes fundamental changes in its aims, strategy, and means for waging a fight. As the centerpiece of this book, the author proposes the ten concrete actions to make the United States safer and more secure.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A retired naval officer and current Washington Times national security analyst offers a cogent sequel to his Unfinished Business; where the former dealt with the war in Afghanistan, this one covers Iraq. Ullman offers a number of specific suggestions for gaining ground, the first of which is to acknowledge that the war is primarily against Islamist factions, and not against generalized "terror." Doing so requires that the U.S. take the threatened position of Pakistan more seriously and support its present regime more vigorously, lest it be overthrown by the "jihadists," who will thereby acquire a substantial nuclear arsenal and a much more developed power base than Iraq could ever have given them. Thirdly, Ullman suggests a massive international program of economic and political assistance to Iraq, comparable to the Marshall Plan or, domestically, to the GI Bill. Fourth, Congress is to be held more accountable for its failures—which does not lead to Ullman's exculpating the executive or judiciary branches from crimes, errors and misdemeanors. Newt Gingrich's foreword and Wesley Clark's afterword contribute to an atmosphere of collegiality; Ullman's two cents fall in with others this autumn contributing less partisan perspectives.
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Review

"...a must read for anybody wielding power in Washington and those of us interested in beating back terrorists." -- Soundings, 17 November 2004

"...a useful and thoughtful contribution to the debate." -- Army, December 2004

"A must read for anyone seeking strategic-level understanding of Jihadist extremism and the steps required to defeat it." -- Parameters, Winter 2004-2005

Product Details

• Hardcover: 241 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press; 1St Edition edition (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591149061
• ISBN-13: 978-1591149064
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,807,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally An Overall Framework on Terror, November 8, 2004

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finishing Business: Ten Steps to Defeat Global Terror (Hardcover)

First, let me just list the people whose names appear on the back of the book making comments on the the book and/or its author.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former National Security Advisor
Brent Scowcroft, Former National Security Advisor
John Lehman, Former Secretary of the Navy
Anthony Zinni, Former Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command
James Woolsey, Former Director of Central Intelligence
John Hamre, Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense.

The theme of the book is far different, far more wide ranging and comprehensive than most of the writing on the subject, far more than television coverage shows, and infinitely more than the gibberish that was the election rhetoric.

The book says that the War on Terror, like our Wars on drugs, poverty, crime and other social ills is so far a war on symptoms, not on a cause. And unless some dramatic changes in the thought processes of those in charge, is likely to be just as ineffective. Dr. Ullman defines the danger as Jihadist Extremism, a polititial ideology just as Bolshevism or Nazism, with a thin veneer of religion that is intent on establishing some form of a fundamentalist state backed by Saudi oil money, with an almost unlimited supply of radical young men from Africa to Indonesia, and potentially with nuclear weapons from the Pakistani arsenal.

To fight such forces will require a fundamental change in the way the United States and the rest of the world addresses the problem. To go on further would require that this review be nearly as long as the book itself. Let me just conclude that this book has the ring of George Kennan, Paul Nitze, Herman Kahn and Henry Kissinger in their early days of defining the danger of the post World War II Soviet Union. The country will ignore this book at its peril.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where was the editor?, January 10, 2005

By 

Flying Scot "Retired Prof." (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finishing Business: Ten Steps to Defeat Global Terror (Hardcover)

This book is brilliant in multiple ways. It gives insights to many otherwise puzzling events in the recent past. Unfortunately, perhaps in the rush to get it to press while still topical, the editing is dreadful and makes the book a Murmansk run for the reader.

Example from page 42: "After the terrorist attacks, had Al Gore been president, it is unlikely that he would have had little option except to go after al Qaeda in Afganistan." I read that to mean that he'd have had other options, but who knows?

The flying leaps from topic to topic, often even within a single paragraph lead one either to give up and skim downwind touching only the wavetop highlights or beat to windward through mounting syntactic surf in trying to follow the argument. Ever hear of transitions ? (Usually taught in freshman comp.) The obscure syntax sometimes reads as if English were an almost-mastered second language to Ullman.

As a current member of the Naval Institute and a fan of Ullman's work, I am embarassed by the egregious editing failures of this otherwise outstanding work. The Naval Institute has failed Ullman. His work deserves better.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant With Great Insights, February 5, 2005

By 

G. Reid (Roseland, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finishing Business: Ten Steps to Defeat Global Terror (Hardcover)

C-Span2 Book TV has an excellent author event available. The author is very articulate and the book is brilliant. Some of the main points of the book are listed below.

1. We do not understand the danger of terrorism. We are dealing with a political movement with political ambitions. The terrorists are using religion as a cover.

2. Our government needs major reforms. Discipline and accountability has to be a responsibility of government officials.

3. We need to change our focus from national defense to national security. We need to form a national security university.

4. We need better ways to respond globally to the terrorism threat. We need to rejuvenate NATO. NATO now has a global mission.

5. The danger is in the Middle East. The real terrorist threat is to the Middle East, not so much to the USA mainland.