Mr. Scheuer was a senior U.S. Intelligence official in the CIA, and has clear positions on what is being done wrong, and what needs to be done, to keep America and American citizens safe. He is critical of the Bush Administrations simplistic position that "... they hate us because of our Freedoms...".

Instead, Mr. Scheuer points out that the writings and speeches of Al Qaeda indicate that the key issues continue to be the presence of U.S. troops in "Holy Lands", the U.S. unabashed, one-sided, and unquestioning unilateral support for anything Israel does, and the U.S. continuing support of repressive Arab regimes such as in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. To more and more Muslims, the U.S. championing of Human Rights is hypocritical in that it only applies to enemies, but does not appear to apply to pseudo-allies like Saudi Arabia, (since we need their oil), or Egypt (if they maintain a peace treaty with Israel). Scheuer points out that these are the issues which must be addressed, and the causes of our troubles.

While taking issue with the Bush policies, hard core Party loyalists from both the Republican as well as the Democratic sides of the aisle can take issue with "Marching Toward Hell". Mr. Scheuer is clearly a Reagen Republican, but while criticizing the current administration's handling of the war on terror following 9/11, he's no supporter of Clinton's earlier actions against Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda either. The common theme is that neither the current nor previous Administration, in this ex-CIA manager's opinion, have taken the appropriate steps to combat radical Islam, and if the US is to succeed, the Country must change it's approach.

It's true that many Muslims may be offended by aspects of Western culture, organizations such as al Qaeda are not fighting against us because of our democratic system of government, our civil liberties, gender equality, or our policy of separation of church and state. Those among them who preach violence are prompted by specific US military, political, and econimic policies that create antagonism in the Islamic world. Those strategies convince many into believing their communities, lands, and religion are under attack. Mr. Scheuer makes the argument that the longer we continue to fight and remain in Iraq and Afghanistan, the more enemies we are creating. He is a supporter of the earlier Powell policy of , if faced with war, go in with overwhelming force, win quickly, and get out. The auther states that if our leaders fail to recognize the true issues, and US policies and rhetoric do not change, the west will continue to lose the war on terror.

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Michael Scheuer's previously brilliant analyses of al-Qaeda and the War on Terror, notwithstanding the author's bourgeois, imperialist bias, really deteriorated in this book. Don't even bother picking this book up. ( )

I'd give this a miss, especially if you have read his previous volume, Imperial Hubris. This ex-CIA analyst is one enormous, relentless pain in the ass. (Please note he was an analyst, an Arabist, and not with any operational duties. )He is/was/will be always right. You certainly can't slot him into any political grouping: both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, Tenet, Cheney, Steve Coll, the FBI, Congress, Republicans, Democrats ... except for Reagan, he hates 'em all equally vehemently.

Anyway, I would still seek out Scheuer's book on Osama bin Laden, which was scheduled to come out after this one. It must have been published shortly before Osama's death. One of Scheuer's more persuasive complaints is that mere translations of Osama's words don't convey very much to non-believers and non-Arabic speakers; more important are Osama's specific Koranic references and their impact on listeners.

Even if your grasp of Arabic is good, as is the case with many Western journalists nowadays (think Tony Shadid or Azadeh Moaveni), deep knowledge of the Koran is something else altogether. Let's see if Scheuer can do a better job. ( )

Scheuer remains one of the most perceptive analysts about Bin Laden. On 7 January 2009, following his latest book, Marching, Scheuer warned the U.S. about Obama's choice of Leon Panetta as the head of CIA.

On CNN, Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer in charge of the hunt for Bin Laden is critical of former President Clinton and the man reported to be President-elect Obama's pick to head the CIA, Leon Panetta:

"He clearly has nothing on his curriculum vitae that suggests he should be the candidate for this job," Scheuer said. "It's not apparent he has any talent that is pertinent to the job."

Scheuer said Panetta's lack of experience could damage the agency and jeopardize national security.

"What Mr. Panetta's appointment says is that there's no urgency in the mind of the Obama administration that they think they can send somebody over there who can learn on the job and that the enemy will wait to attack us," he said."

Appearing on the Fox News' "Special Report," Scheuer stated:

"The agency officers will be well aware that bin Laden is a problem today because Mr. Panetta and Mr. Clinton and their colleagues chose to do nothing to protect America."

"Moscow puts heavy culpability on Saudi Arabia and other Arabian Peninsula states for funding Islamist insurgents organizations, allowing their nationals to fight alongside the Chechens and others in the region, and sending Islamist NGOs to the North Caucasus to inculcate Wahhabism among the inhabitants" (p. 169).

I'm about a third of the way through it now and it's bordering on unreadable. And I really, really, enjoyed Imperial Hubris and other articles by Scheuer that I've read. I might get around to finishing this but Christ is it a whole lot of effort for not a lot of joy.

Short list of some of the things and people Scheuer despises up to page 110:

FBI (nosy, incompetent, actively sabotaging the CIA)
NSA (pretentious, not willing to do their job)
Entire Clinton administration (no balls)
Entire Bush administration (no clue)
All US Presidents since WWII with one exception (see below)
Europeans (a.k.a. land of "hedonistic atheists")
Non-Governmental Organizations (especially Amnesty International and other members of the "human rights mafia")
Academics (in particular just-war theorists)

Short list of some of the things and people Scheuer loves up to page 110:

Michael Scheuer
The CIA
Margaret Thatcher
Ronald Reagan

Apparently later on in the book he proposes a solution to protecting US from Al Qaeda which includes a crash program to set landmines along the entirety of the Mexican and Canadian borders. I can't wait. ( )