May 2, 2011
Book Review: The Fight of Our Lives
One of the great coincidences in recent times may be that the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden was made 66 years to the day after the announcement of the death of Adolf Hitler. (or so I read in a tweet today).
A slightly less auspicious coincidence is that when I opened my computer this morning and read of bin Laden's demise, I had originally intended to post this review of The Fight of Our Lives, an analysis of the US' prosecution of the "war on terror".
Puting aside current events for a moment, Authors William J Bennet and Seth Leibsohn do a fair job of presenting the facts in this extensively footnoted work. There is very little in the book that is new, especially to aficionados of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Fox News. While not all of their angst is directed at the current administration, they heavily (and, I believe, correctly) criticize Obama's handling of the aftermath of the Fort Hood massacre.
The overall conclusion of the book seems to be that America is losing its nerve in the war against terror. The very use of the term "war on terror"--instead of "war on radical Islam"--is one indication of this lack of clarity. Perhaps yesterday's events show that the situation is not as bleak as the authors make it out to be.
Still, the concerns the authors make will not go away with the death of Osama, and those in policy-making positions--as well as the nation as a whole--would do well to take the observations in The Fight of Our Lives to heart in the days ahead.
One final observation: for the believer in Christ, the book does not go far enough. The ultimate solution to the "war on terror" will not come as a result of the victory of American arms and American ideals, as the authors seem to suggest. Rather, it will come as the result of a general working of the Grace of God in the Arab world. May we as believers pray earnestly to that end.
The small print: Though I received this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze program, in return for a review, I am under no obligation to write a positive review of this work.
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Posted by Andrew on May 2, 2011 3:21 PM.
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