The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism | 
 enlarge | Author: Ron Suskind
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 240
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.6
ISBN: 0061430625
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.931
EAN: 9780061430626
ASIN: 0061430625
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
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From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation's struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantanamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today's shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of "The Armageddon Test" —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world's nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor's son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she's been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.
Product Description
From Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantanamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world.
In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of The Armageddon Test a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency.
While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate and often daring brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor s son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she s been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions human solutions to so much that has gone wrong.
For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope along with the moral clarity and earned optimism at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.
Book Description
From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Ron Suskind comes a startling look at how America lost its way and at the nation’s struggle, day by day, to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. From the White House to Downing Street, from the fault-line countries of South Asia to the sands of Guantanamo, Suskind offers an astonishing story that connects world leaders to the forces waging today’s shadow wars and to the next generation of global citizens. Tracking down truth and hope within the Beltway and far beyond it, Suskind delivers historic disclosures with this emotionally stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world. In a sweeping, propulsive, and multilayered narrative, The Way of the World investigates how America relinquished the moral leadership it now desperately needs to fight the real threat of our era: a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. Truth, justice, and accountability become more than mere words in this story. Suskind shows where the most neglected dangers lie in the story of “The Armageddon Test” —a desperate gamble to send undercover teams into the world’s nuclear black market to frustrate the efforts of terrorists trying to procure weapons-grade uranium. In the end, he finally reveals for the first time the explosive falsehood underlying the Iraq War and the entire Bush presidency. While the public and political realms struggle, The Way of the World simultaneously follows an ensemble of characters in America and abroad who are turning fear and frustration into a desperate—and often daring—brand of human salvation. They include a striving, twenty-four-year-old Pakistani emigre, a fearless UN refugee commissioner, an Afghan teenager, a Holocaust survivor’s son, and Benazir Bhutto, who discovers, days before her death, how she’s been abandoned by the United States at her moment of greatest need. They are all testing American values at a time of peril, and discovering solutions—human solutions—to so much that has gone wrong. For anyone hoping to exercise truly informed consent and begin the process of restoring the values and hope—along with the moral clarity and earned optimism—at the heart of the American tradition, The Way of the World is a must-read.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Excellent Material! September 7, 2008
Suskind's latest book investigates how the U.S. lost the moral leadership it needs to fight the real threat of our era - a nuclear weapon in the hands of terrorists. We haven't caught a top terrorist of any real value in two years - Suskind believes that's because of a widespread dislike for the U.S. Problems include our lies about and invasion of Iraq, extraordinary renditions, torture, indefinite detentions, and bungling opportunities involving the U.K. and later Iran. (The U.K. bungling was caused by the Cheny/Bush prodding Pakistan to arrest one of the U.K. plotters' contacts - nearly 2,000 British operatives had been working the case for nearly a year, and the U.S. action ended their ability to learn more or prosecute; the Iran bungling involved our insulting the Iranians by failing to respond to their potential help.)
Suskind also tells us that Bush is not interested in "reality" - unlike FDR, Nixon, and Ford who had specific means of encouraging people to bring forward unpleasant news and views.
More disturbing, however, was Suskind's assertion that the Bush administration discounted information from Iraq's Foreign Minister that Hussein had no WMD - Bush/Cheney were only interested in information that supported their case for war. The White House also took a negative stance on similar information from Iraq's head of security - Habbush. Worst of all, the White House pushed Tenet to have Habbush back-date a false letter claiming that Atta had trained in Iraq, and that there were links between Iraq and Al Qaeda.
In between, Suskind follows a number of sideline "mini-dramas" such as how Islam convinced an outstanding female Pakistani overseas student to drop her potential economics career to become a traditionalist and teach Islam to youngsters, the conflict created by a young Afghan male teenager's perception of his traditional role vs. an American host family, the craziness ruling Gitmo detainees, and the frustrations of a man assigned responsibility to prevent nuclear terrorism.
Buy it. Read it. Vote. September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you don't like, or would like to not like, the current administration, then read this book. If you trust the current administration, then read this book and see if you can explain why you have this trust.
More importantly, the author points to a new American foreign policy which I hope will become part of the current electoral debate. He also seems to point out that there is a better case to impeach Bush than there was to impeach Clinton.
Extraordinary! September 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The Way of the World" is an absolute must read for anyone wanting to know the truth about the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. Mr. Suskind confirms the "foolish arrogance" of Bush and Cheney as they use false intelligence and good people to fool the American people into supporting this illegal war. His strongest message, however, is the evolution of our world toward a greater understanding of each other as we discover our similarities instead of our differences. My only hope is that both Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama read this book and act accordingly.
MAGNIFICENT... and Frightening September 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have just put down The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism and I cannot yet decide which is the more compelling force, the powerful story that has been put down upon its pages or the amazing talent of this writer, who managed to captured it and cleverly pull it together. From interrogations inside the White House gates to the holding cells at Guantanamo, Ron Suskind has masterfully laid out the realities of today in unflinching terms.
Using snapshot-like descriptions of events from the past few years, Suskind not only connects us with the knows - Bush, Blair, Tenet, Musharraf, Bhutto - but also with an array of unknowns with names like Stephen, Ibrahim, Rolf, Usman, Candace, Abdul, Rob, Ann and Stephen that turn out to be core players in our close-knit world. How faith, tradition and hope integrated and shaped their lives and futures, along with those of their families and their societies, reveals for us how 'the way of the world' that we live in has actually come to pass. And in a particularly skillful six-page portrait of the 10th century foundations of faith and reason and the events that launched our beliefs, Suskind carries us forward through a thousand years of evolution to our current levels of confusion with today's priorities and the conundrums that we face.
In his remarkable vignettes, Suskind binds our characters into a single idea, a shared purpose, and makes his case for finding our moral energy and reestablishing America's moral leadership so that we might generate precious intelligence and global actions that could enable us to detect imminent threats in a world where technology and terrorism have intersected.
Using the same skills that were on display in The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11, he takes us inside the mind of each member of the cast and lets us walk in their shoes. In the last third of this book, the players not only address these realities of nuclear terrorism but also the need for cooperation on a global scale to address it. They appropriately raise the question of 'why' terrorism and nuclear weapons are handled in secret rather than continuing with the traditional 'how' to better watch over them; asking not 'how' 9/11 happened but 'why'.
Of the many allegations contained in this journalistic masterpiece, one in particular indicates that The White House was the source of a fake letter from an Iraqi intelligence agent to Saddam Hussein that linked Mohamed Atta's 9/11 mission directly to Saddam and to Iraq. Unfortunately, the frenzy that resulted has overshadowed some equally important issues that Suskind's book has also addressed, which have the potential to impact the future in no small way. The appropriate questions of the day are first, what are other nations doing with their loose uranium [or WMDs]? and second, how do we assess the gap between what they are saying publicly and doing privately? and finally, are we doing enough to control or eliminate these dangerous commodities? I found it notable that in 2003, there was a deliberate American diplomatic snub of the Iranians in Geneva, which shut down the ongoing talks with Tehran, took place after Iran had voluntarily suspended the part of their nuclear program to weaponize enriched uranium. Was this 'step in the wrong direction' for political reasons?
As the Senate committees make moves to look into issues and allegations raised by this book, perhaps they should address such issues as 'uranium leaks from Russia to Georgia in 2003 and 2006' or 'actions that we should pursue now to compensate for our past failures in policy and security', things that Suskind's prose has made perfectly clear. And as we plan for a better future, let us also question why is it that an Iraq-like campaign to bomb Iran still persists in media reports about the current Administration. Is the intent of this to 'stop terrorism' once again? I don't think so...
Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition... - a fact-based novel about Iran, Iraq and the Middle East.
grateful reader September 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a profound book. A description of the betrayal by the powerful and the courage and integrity of the people who move this country, this civilization forward simply doing what they know is right, is ethical.
I began reading this book to find the section describing Bush choosing to go to war knowing that the case he was making to us was false. The gravity of this is staggering...
What I gained in reading the book in its entirety is confirmation that the essential American spirit enobled by the values most of us hold and live by are still relevant and that those values are not exclusive to America but are universal among brave citizens of many countries.
This country was highjacked by a president and vice president who came to office with an agenda to have a war with Iraq and took whatever path to lie to and manipulate the citizens of this country to support them.
And yet, there are many inspiring people who meet this corruption on the road where it travels and fight it on the only battlefield that matters. These incremental achievements are a sharp contrast to the glaring abuses of this White House.
Thank You Mr. Suskind.
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