The New War
The Web of Crime That Threatens America's Security. by John Kerry


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

I'd like to say this is another in Kerry's series of annoyingly didactic books, which he wrote as the means for his own learning of the subject, and to establish his credentials for a future presidential run. While that might be true, it's also true that Kerry made some predictions in this book that society would have been well-advised to listen to.

His focus on terrorism several years before 9/11 was prescient. Fighting terrorism in 1998 was not popular, not politically astute, and not seen as a meaningful problem. Kerry called that one right--and this book details it. Why Kerry did not point this out repeatedly during his presidential campaign is a mystery--it would have made him look like a genius compared to Bush.

Kerry's thesis here is that international crime--as defined by drugs, terrorism, and smuggling, plus the international infrastructure to support them--is a serious and growing problem. The international criminals use increasingly sophisticated tools in a world-wide network, and the civilized nations need to counter them with similar tools.

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, June 2007

Click here for 4 full quotes from John Kerry in the book The New War, by John Kerry. OR click on an issue category below for a subset.

Civil Rights    Politicians use "crime" as codeword for "race".

Crime    Transnational crime is a national security threat.

Drugs    Colombia is entirely criminalized by drug cartels.

Homeland Security    Stop terrorism by focusing on banks, computers & weapons.

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• John Kerry