They Just Don't Get It: How Washington Is Still Compromising Your Safety--and What You Can Do About It (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Hang onto your ball caps and hairpieces, this is going to be monkey-butt ugly." Indeed. Delivering an account of the U.S.'s failures in combatting terror, Hunt, a Fox TV News military analyst and retired army colonel, depicts a world of gutless politicians, bungling bureaucrats, deceitful allies and bleeding-heart liberals. His solution is to expand the armed forces and vastly contract bureaucracy, especially the many intelligence agencies, which he proposes be combined into one central bureau with a single, long-term director who is exempt from testifying before congressional committees. Hunt hates congressional committees and admires elite military teams like the SEALs and Delta Force; he wants them turned loose. Merged into the "TKA" (Terrorist Killing Agency), they would receive intelligence from the now competent intelligence bureau, proceed to wherever terrorists operate and (with or without the host country's permission) kill them. The author considers Israel an ideal model; its forces, he says, respond viciously to every attack. Legal niceties and public relations take a back seat. Assassination teams travel the world to murder Israel's enemies. (Thoughtful readers may wonder why, after decades of slugging it out, Israel remains wracked with terrorism.) No group escapes the author's venom—or his praise. (On sale Apr. 12)

Review

“If President Bush is really serious about winning the War on Terror, he needs to read They Just Don’t Get It immediately. And you do too.” —Bill O'Reilly

“Colonel David Hunt knows the facts and always shoots straight. In They Just Don’t Get It, he shows how bureaucrats and politicians don’t fully grasp the dangers we face in the War on Terror. Hunt reveals that the threats we face are frightening, but he also presents a prescription for fixing the problems.” —Bill Gertz, Washington Times reporter, bestselling author of Treachery and Breakdown

“This is a book that pantywaist politicians, weak-kneed bureaucrats, and politically correct Pentagon brass will run from—because it’s right on! Dave Hunt tells it like it is, and America should listen. We’re at war. We should plan on winning. But to do so will require changes in the way Washington, the government, and the military do business. Hunt lays it all out in a book that’s damned hard to put down once you start it!” —Lieutenant Colonel Bill Cowan (USMC, Ret.), Fox News military analyst


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Crown Forum; First Edition edition (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140009741X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400097418
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #561,412 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 96 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let's get serious., April 14, 2005

By	Hallstatt Prince (MA. USA) - See all my reviews

As an American I find it hard to take that after the events of 9-11-01 we as a country have slipped back into complacency. But what also surprises me is that no one in the government quite seems to understand that the rules of the big game have changed.
It is about time a book like this has come along. David Hunt is stark and no nonsense in his presentation of the dangers America is now facing. His presentation is frank not hysterical and comes complete with numerous documents published for the first time to back up his contentions.
Hunt himself has the credentials to speak to these issues and is no lightweight. A senior research fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard he is recognized expert in the field of terrorism as well as being a military veteran of many years.
Be you a hawk a dove or somewhere in the middle this portion of the book alone makes the book a must read for everyone today.
But I will go further to say that although Col. Hunt is hawkish (a better word for the times in which we live might be pragmatic) I think all of the main ideas he presents here, our complacency, the weakness of our leaders, our willingness to please the rest of the world to the point of our own determent (in a world where the consequences could be unimaginable) and having bureaucracy in this country that borders on the Byzantine are all problems every reader, be they hawk or dove, should consider.
Col. Hunt not only points out the mistakes we are making in the war on terror and our foreign policy but has some solutions. And in that way this is not really a "gloom and doom" book but something which is hopeful. Further he offers practical advice on how to protect one's own family. Whether you agree with his solutions or not this is a book that must be examined and discussed.

Jim Connell

104 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard hitting, April 13, 2005

By	L. A. Kane (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book is an outstanding, albeit terrifying look into the war on terror and our will/ability to win it. Col. Hunt argues that three major inhibiters--apathy, bureaucracy, and a lack of political will stand in our way. A quick synopsis:

Apathy amongst the media, politicians, and the electorate is very dangerous because the bad guys are still out there and still trying their level best to do us in. Regardless, in the four years since 9/11 apathy has taken hold nearly everywhere. Fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan just don't seem real; terrorist actions in foreign countries (e.g., Bali nightclub bombing, Spanish train bombing) don't feel like a clear and present danger here.

Bureaucracy and status quo mentality have combined with this lack of urgency to stall essential change. For example, the Director of National Intelligence has neither the budgetary control nor the hire/fire authority to really control the various agencies that report to him. Intelligence officials spend too much time in congressional committees and not enough finding and fighting our enemies. The White House staff numbers in the thousands today while back in the Kennedy Administration it was less than a hundred...

Political will not only addresses the ability to make needed change but also the willingness to take action at all. For example, even though the pre-Iraq war WMD intelligence was totally inaccurate, no one was fired and essential organizational/cultural change has still not been made. The FBI's $100M computing sinkhole not only led to no working system but also no firings for those whose job it was to implement the project. And, we are, in Hunt's words, "still sleeping with the enemy." We have friendly relations with the Russians while they sell weapons to terrorists and unfriendly countries. We support Saudi Arabia even though their terrorist crackdowns are mostly just for show and they continue to fund extremist religious schools and institutions.

The first part of the book is designed to scare us into action. Not only does he point out the many problems, however, but he also offers a solution. This would include markedly expanding the military, untying the hands of our special forces, massively reducing the power of congressional committees, gutting the entrenched bureaucracy, and making select changes to the law, among other things. I somehow doubt any of these changes can take place unless, god forbid, there is another large scale terrorist attack on US soil, but I found the book illuminating nevertheless. You can certainly see Col. Hunt's military background and perspective shine through.

The book is hard-hitting and very frank. Treated as an academic study it is comprehensive, well researched, interesting, and pretty well written. And, it forms the basis of a plan of action should our elected officials wish to step up the war on terror to the next level. If you want the inside scoop on the war on terror, you gotta read this book.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I worked for Col Hunt, May 10, 2005

By	Wendy J. Rogers "Lt Col, USAF (ret)" (Tempe AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Sure, Col Hunt's book is written in salty, colorful language and is seemingly facile in its approach and solutions. But allow me to tell you something - - I worked directly and closely under Col Hunt during an intense 6-month deployment, overseas, away from home, during the mid-90s. I am female. I served as an Air Force pilot; he was in the Army. He is the FINEST OFFICER I EVER worked for! No exception. As someone who retired after 20 years in the male-dominated field of piloting jets, I can also honestly say he was/is the most pro-female-supportive guy I've known. Just ask him sometime about the Air Force Academy sex scandals or Tailhook. There again, he'll tell you, 'They just don't get it.' Why do I say all this? Because Col Hunt possesses the most credibility of anyone I know. He writes just as he thinks and speaks - - lasering in on the TRUTH. When he directs an operation, he gets down to brass tacks, ferrets out the truth, lets people "operate", and gets the job DONE! He is the REAL DEAL. Whatever he says; you can take it to the bank, because it is spot-on-target. His book is a CLARION CALL. Do I think the call will be heeded? Unfortunately not. But maybe some of the book's nuggets will resonate at high enough levels, so that some of the bumbling and political interference can be stopped. I likewise worked under Gen Jones and Adm Smith. They knew enough to closely heed his counsel. I sure hope President George W. Bush does.