Review: Against all Enemies
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Author | Andrew Preston |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200405900213 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
the
charade,
even
as
it
fell
apart,
still
met
the
interests
of
all
the
par-
ties-except
for
the
victims
of
the
genocide.
Dallaire's
narrative
would
do
justice
to
a
novel by
Conrad
or
Kafka:
His
illusions
are
stripped
away
piece
by
piece
as
he
descends
into
hell.
The
book's
title
is
no
literary
turn
of
phrase
but
the
essence
of
his
story.
The
peeling
away
of
his
beliefs,
however, laid
bare
a
central
core
of
grim
determination:
to
keep
his
mission
in place
and
save
any
Rwandans he
could,
at
whatever the
cost
to
his force.
This
decision-
to extend
his
limited
mandate
and
give
the
new mission
priority
over
the
safety
of
his
own
multinational
personnel-was
controversial
at
the time,
and
remains
so.
Dallaire
savagely
rejects
that
controversy.
The ultimate
purpose
of
the
book
is
to persuade developed
nations
to
make
the
sacrifices
necessary
to
prevent
the
failure
of
humanity
wherever
it
occurs.
He
drives
home
throughout
his
narrative
that
those
sacrifices
are
in
fact
paltry-the
modest
increases
in
his
force
that
he
repeatedly
demanded and
was
every
time
refused
would
very
likely
have
greatly
mitigated or
even
prevented
the
genocide.
His
appeal
is
not
just
for
more
capable
military
intervention,
but,
above
all,
the
increases
in
development
assistance
that
would
ease
the poverty,
dis-
ease,
illiteracy
and
hopelessness
that
cause
the
failure
of
humanity.
His
conclusions
are
very
similar to
those
Lloyd
Axworthy
draws
in
his
recent
Navigating
A
New
World.
Canada's
Global
Future
(2003),
and
not
surprisingly
so.
Axworthy
was
also
inspired
by
the
failure
of
humanity
he
saw
in
Africa,
but
he,
to
his
great
good
fortune,
did
not
have
to
shake
the
devil's
hand.
Roger
Sarty/Wilfrid Laurier
University
AGAINST
ALL
ENEMIES
Inside
America's
War
on
Terror
Richard
Clarke
New
York:
Free
Press,
2004.
xiv,
305pp,
$37.50
cloth
(ISBN
0-7432-
6024-4)
)
olitical
memoirs-especially,
for some
reason,
those
written
by
Americans-are
usually tepid
affairs
that
do
not
make
for
a
grip-
ping
read.
Richard
Clarke's
Against
All
Enemies,
however,
is
a
notable
exception.
Unlike most memoirists, Clarke
has
not
written
in
a
prosaic
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Spring2004
449
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