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Terrorism, Afghanistan, and America's New Way of War. By Norman Friedman. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003. 360 pages. $29.95.
Norman Friedman has written an excellent book that seamlessly moves across the three topics that his title advertises. His analysis begins with an account of the 9/11 attacks and the events leading up to and following that terrible day. I was reluctant to rehash these events in reading Chapter 1, and many Americans, intimately acquainted with 9/11, may feel the same way. However, the first chapter was a very engaging read, pulling the reader into familiar events and illuminating many aspects of the attacks and their aftermath with which readers may be unfamiliar. The next chapters, recounting the recent history of terrorism and the American response, were especially interesting, as the release of the book was in time for controversial testimony to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9-11 Commission). Friedman covers systemic problems in the national counterterrorism apparatus and is particularly critical of the restrained response of the Clinton Administration during the 1990s.
After his discussion of terrorism, Friedman transitions...