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America the Vulnerable: How Our Government Is Failing to Protect Us from Terrori |
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America the Vulnerable: How Our Government Is Failing to Protect Us from Terrori |
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基本信息·出版社：HarperCollins Publishers
·页码：234 页
·出版日期：2004年08月
·ISBN：0060571284
·条形码：9780060571283
·版本：第1版
·装帧：精装
·开本：20开 Pages Per Sheet
·外文书名：容易受伤的美国
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Book DescriptionThree years after September 11, we are still dangerously unprepared to prevent or respond to another attack on American soil. Faced with this threat, the United States should be operating on a wartime footing at home. But despite the many new security precautions that have been proposed, our most serious vulnerabilities remain ominously exposed.
In this call to action, Stephen Flynn offers a portrait of the radical shortcomings in America's current plan for homeland security. He describes a frightening scenario of what the next major terrorist attack might look like, revealing the tragic loss of life and economic havoc it would leave in its wake, as well as the seismic political consequences it would have in Washington.
Despite increased awareness, we still offer our enemies a vast menu of soft targets: water and food supplies; chemical plants; energy grids and pipelines; bridges, tunnels, and ports; and the millions of cargo containers that carry most of the goods we depend upon in our everyday lives. The measures we have cobbled together to protect these vital systems are hardly fit to deter amateur thieves, vandals, and smugglers, let alone determined terrorists. Worse still, small improvements are often oversold as giant steps forward, lowering the guard of the average citizen and building an unwarranted sense of confidence.
It does not have to be this way. Flynn outlines a plan for achieving security in a way that is safe and smart, effective and manageable.
Amazon.comThe most gripping portion of Stephen Flynn's examination of America's defense shortcomings in the war on terror arrives early. The entire second chapter imagines an elaborate but feasible dirty-bomb attack that brings the nation's transportation system to a halt and presents the President with two dreadful options: reopen borders closed by the emergency and risk further attack, or inspect everything that comes into the country and accept the cataclysmic economic consequences. Flynn, a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations and veteran of the George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations, paints a picture of a government that is flailing in its efforts to protect its citizens. We are, Flynn argues, hamstrung by entrenched intelligence bureaucracies and ideological power centers on the right and left, and he isn't optimistic about the near-term likelihood that we'll meet our greatest challenge: "identifying how to formally engage the broader civil society and private sector, not just the federal government, in a national effort to make America a less attractive terrorist target." America the Vulnerable isn't as powerful or contentious as the bestseller Imperial Hubris; Flynn is a practical government veteran who keeps his outrage largely in check. It's clear he aims to have an impact with this expose of a national defense he compares to France's in the days of the Maginot line. And we know how effective that "impenetrable" defense stood up in the face of an unconventional opponent.
--Steven Stolder
From Publishers WeeklyArguing for the primary role of homeland security, Council on Foreign Relations fellow Flynn describes a nation living on borrowed time. He presents a hypothetical scenario of a devastating "next attack" and stresses the difficulty officials have in learning new tricks and politicians have in paying for them. Flynn stresses as well the susceptibility of the food supply to sabotage and the lack of oversight in a vulnerable chemical industry, emphasizing in particular the continuing failure to establish systematic inspection of cargo containers. He is most convincing in arguing the risks of a "silver bullet approach," the assumption that a single innovation will solve a particular security problem. Instead, Flynn proposes a Federal Homeland Security System integrating private and public expertise, funded by levying fees on such activities as the movement of containers and by requiring owners and operators of critical infrastructure to carry antiterrorist insurance. The details of Flynn's proposals are significant in representing a genuinely long-term response to a threat he is convinced will remain serious for an indefinite longterm. Any risks they might pose to civil liberties, he argues, are marginal compared with the likely domestic consequences of being caught unprepared a second time—or a third.
About AuthorStephen Flynn is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the lead author of the task force report "America: Still Unprepared, Still in Danger," and his articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs. He spent twenty years as a commissioned officerin the U.S. Coast Guard, served in the White House Military Office during the George H. W. Bush administration,and was director for Global Issues on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration.
Book DimensionHeight (mm) 237 Width (mm) 166
编辑推荐 "A provocative critique by one eminently qualified to make it." (Kirkus Reviews )^"A critical read for both our political leaders and every American citizen." (Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean, Yale School of Management )^"If officials in Washington would read just one book, this is it. It should scare us into action." (Fareed Zakaria, author of The Future of Freedom )^"America the Vulnerable will grip you, intrigue you, frighten you and inspire you. Flynn is a genuine expert." (Norman Ornstein, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute )^"This book had to be written. Flynn's threat scenarios are chillingly persuasive. His urgent prescriptions are compelling." (Gary Hart, former U.S. Senator, co-chair, the United States Commission on National Security for the 21st Century )^"Stunningly detailed. Unsettling but necessary reading for all Americans deeply concerned about the future security of our nation." (Warren Rudman, former U.S. Senator, co-chair, the United States Commission on National Security for the 21st Century )
目录 1 Living on borrowed time
1
2 The next attack
17
3 The phony war
37
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