This review of Tim Naftali's new book appears in Commentary magazine.

The Americans, neophytes at the craft of counterespionage, learned from British intelligence how to glean the secrets of hostile forces. This early history reverberates through all that follows.

In the July/August 2005 issue of Atlantic Monthly, Caroline Elkins, author of Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, explains the problems with following the British model of counterinsurgency. About her book, Publishers Weekly said, "Her superbly written and impassioned book deserves the widest possible readership." BBC News did a story (with video) on this in 2002.

Naftali shows how much of our blind spot about terrorism is structural. Even as we continue to pay the price, our culture resists modest protective measures like the Patriot Act.

So if you reject even these modest measures, does that make you immodest? (Last line in the Globe article: "At this point the rest of the world is prepared to believe almost anything.")

A tension has long existed between high-level government leaders and mid-level bureaucrats. The latter have more accurately perceived worrisome trends and brought them to the attention of their higher-ups, who just as regularly have ignored them.

As Kevin Hale concisely explained, "Important = Face-time". This is as true for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes as it is for Osama. Do you need evidence?

A brief diversion: what are the first two sentences to read in a news article? The lead-in and the last sentence. Consider the Osama article:

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Afghanistan, said Thursday that he does not believe Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar are in the central Asian country.

Visiting Washington last month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai also denied the fugitive terrorist leader was in his country. "If he were, we would catch him," he said.

You can almost hear Karzai muttering, "you idiot" under his breath. Now, back to wrap up the Naftali review:

Timothy Naftali convincingly demonstrates that, at each step of the way, more and better was possible. For that reason alone, his study should become essential reading as we chart the way forward.

Have you read it yet? What, are you clearing your summer reading schedule for that children's book? You baby. If you are going to spend time reading fiction about magic, you can at least spend it with an adult book on the subject.