Scorpians Gate

Djaughe · October 25th, 2005, 10:21 AM

Cool the guy is working on his second novel!

Quote:

Clarke unleashes 'Scorpion' on U.S. foreign policy
By Deirdre Donahue, USA TODAY

Combine an insider's expertise in geopolitics, the structure of a thriller and a deadly serious concern about the direction of American foreign policy in the Middle East and you have Richard A. Clarke's anticipated new novel, The Scorpion's Gate.

Quote:

Clarke: Turns to fiction to
explore terrorism, U.S. policy.

Clarke, an anti-terrorism expert for four successive presidents, wrote last year's non-fiction best seller Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror, a scathing critique of how his last boss, President George W. Bush, handled the threat of terrorism before 9/11 and his response in the aftermath of the attacks.

This time, Clarke turns to the fictional form to express his fears about the same presidential administration.

Among Clarke's explorations: the war in Iraq, the deepening alienation of the Arab world from the USA, the machinations of Iran, the lack of good intelligence gathering, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, America's refusal to understand other cultures, and the United States' addiction to oil and its failure to find an energy alternative.

Disguised as a novel, The Scorpion's Gate starts out as a red-meat feast for Bush doubters. It evolves into a convincing lecture about the deep religious and political tensions within the Arab world, offers up a heartfelt plea for U.S. politicians to remember the lessons of Vietnam and ends up terrifying the reader into wondering whether the United States will survive to see another presidential election.

The book is set in the very near future. After a bloody but failed war in the Middle East, the United States is desperate for both oil and friends.

Postwar Iraq has thrown us out. Our former oil supplier, Saudi Arabia, is now called Islamyah. Although hostile to America, this new government does have democratic leanings.

The corrupt Saudi rulers have fled to the USA, where they plot their return to power. That they remain enormously rich helps them buy U.S. politicians and influence political campaigns.

The plot revolves around a blustering, ignorant secretary of defense who tries to manufacture a war in Islamyah in order to turn the oil spigot back on and serve his Saudi masters.

He is pitted against the novel's protagonist, the head of a newly created intelligence agency.

Other players include a Navy admiral, a British intelligence operative, a heroic female reporter and several sympathetic Arab leaders.

Though his characters are more spokesmen for his beliefs than well-crafted literary figures, Clarke clearly knows this world. Still, a reader's politics and worldview may determine whether he or she wants to enter The Scorpion's Gate.