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Ladataan... Undaunted: My Fight Against America's Enemies, At Home and AbroadTekijä: John O. Brennan
   - Ei tämänhetkisiä Keskustelu-viestiketjuja tästä kirjasta.  1Randal | Dec 2, 2020 |   Brennan began his memoir with his childhood when he thought he would grow up to be a priest before he became more skeptical in high school. He applied to the CIA in college. He writes about his training with self-deprecating stories of his mistakes such as being the first person noticed in a shadowing exercise mainly because he was wearing clothes that stood out. He soon dropped Operations (the movie kind of CIA) for Analysis (the reading and writing kind of CIA.) He studied Arabic in college and spent time there early in his CIA career and returned mid-career as well. This was his area of expertise and the reason he was in counter-terrorism. He tells about his work during several administrations and his advancing career. I enjoyed Undaunted quite a bit. Brennan is a good writer, concise and organized, which is a natural reflection of his lifetime of preparing analyses and briefings. He can take the complex and distill it to the essentials in a few paragraphs. If you’re expecting secrets, though, you won’t get any. Not only did this go through the CIA review process, Brennan is not writing to share secrets, but to give folks an idea of the value of nonpartisan professional civil servants like him. He worked well with Republican and Democratic presidents. This is a necessary antidote in these days of “deep state” conspiracy-mongering. One of the strangely comforting things was his explanation of how hard they worked to develop a framework for drone strikes. When Obama took over, drone strikes happened, but there was no systematic checklist of requirements necessary to okay a strike. They put a lot of work into creating guidelines about the degree of certainty, the lack of other options, the safety of non-combatants, etc. So, perhaps this sounds weird. Drone strike assassination of suspected terrorists is a moral wrong, in my opinion, but there is comfort in knowing that the people doing it are uncomfortable enough with that power that they try to limit and circumscribe it. It doesn’t make it less wrong, but it does make it better than those ordering it also think it’s wrong enough they try to limit it. I received a copy of Undaunted from the publisher for review. Undaunted at Celadon Press James O. Brennan on Twitter https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/11/03/undaunted-by-james-o-bren... (  ) Tonstant.Weader | Nov 3, 2020 | näyttää 2/2 ei arvosteluja | lisää arvostelu
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A powerful and revelatory memoir from former CIA director John Brennan, spanning his more than thirty years in government.Friday, January 6, 2017: On that day, as always, John Brennan's alarm clock was set to go off at 4:15 a.m. But nothing else about that day would be routine. That day marked his first and only security briefing with President-elect Donald Trump. And it was also the day John Brennan said his final farewell to Owen Brennan, his father, the man who had taught him the lessons of goodness, integrity, and honor that had shaped the course of an unparalleled career serving his country from within the intelligence community.In this brutally honest memoir, Brennan, the son of an Irish immigrant who settled in New Jersey, describes the life that took him from being a young CIA recruit enamored with the mystique of spy work, secretly defiant enough to drive a motorcycle and sport a diamond earring, and invigorated by his travels in the Middle East to being the most powerful individual in American intelligence. He details his experiences with very different presidents and what it's been like to bear responsibility for some of the nation's most crucial and polarizing national security decisions.He pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the Agency, describing the selfless, patriotic, and invisible work of the women and men involved in national security. He also examines the insularity, arrogance, and myopia that have, at times, undermined its reputation in the eyes of the American people and of members of other branches of government. Through topics ranging from George W. Bush's intervention in Iraq to his thoughts on the CIA's controversial use of enhanced interrogation techniques to his eye-opening account of the planning of the raid that resulted in Bin Ladin's death to his realization that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election, Brennan brings the listener behind the scenes of some of the most crucial moments in recent U.S. history. He also candidly discusses the times he has failed to live up to his own high standards and the very public fallouts that have resulted. With its behind-the-scenes look at how major U.S. national security policies and actions unfolded during his long and distinguished career--especially during his eight years in the Obama administration--John Brennan's memoir is a work of history with strong implications for the future of America and our country's relationships with other world powers.Undaunted: My Fight Against America's Enemies, at Home and Abroad offers a rare and insightful look at the often-obscured world of national security, the intelligence profession, and Washington's chaotic political environment. But more than that, it is a portrait of a man striving for integrity; for himself, for the CIA, and for his country.A Macmillan Audio production from Celadon Books Kirjastojen kuvailuja ei löytynyt. |
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 Google Books — Ladataan...LajityypitMelvil Decimal System (DDC)327.12730092Social sciences Political Science International Relations Foreign policy and specific topics in international relations Espionage and subversion North America United StatesKongressin kirjaston luokitusArvio (tähdet)Keskiarvo: (3.5)
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In his over 30 year career, he has epitomized what a good man should be. Tirelessly striving to set a good example, doing the right thing, and speaking honestly to those in power.
This book is all of that. Brennan narrates the book in such a way that you feel like he is sitting with you and confiding his most personal thoughts. I was fascinated by the stories.
I feel bad for Brennan, so many years of service, only to run head long into the world of Trump. You have to wonder where Brennan found the reserve to not punch Trump in the nose. I hope that Brennan knows that the truth will prevail, and his reputation will emerge intact.
Thank you, Mr. Brennan, for your service. (