I’M MAD AT TOM CLANCY

I’m mad at Tom Clancy!....OK, I’m not really mad at Tom Clancy.

Recently I read a book of his that was published in 1996 titled Executive Orders. Up until then I hadn’t read anything he’s written. I’m not saying that I didn’t know who he is or that he is an author, I just hadn’t read anything of his. Sure, I’ve seen movies that have been made from his books (The Hunt For Red October, Clear And Present Danger, and Patriot Games) and found them all to be great action films. I even liked Alec Baldwin’s portrayal of Jack Ryan (the main character) in The Hunt For Red October. But I didn’t miss him when Harrison Ford took over portraying Jack Ryan in the other films.

The reason I’m mad is because in the book Executive Orders Tom Clancy has an airliner crash into the US Capital Building. This is the second time that a writer whose book I’ve read depicts an airliner being used as a missile on a US building. The first writer I read that depicted that was Joel Rosenberg. He wrote the book The Last Jihad.

In The Last Jihad, Rosenberg has an airliner fly into a building by Muslim terrorists. Ironically he was finishing his book on the very morning of September 11, 2001. In fact, The Last Jihad was Joel Rosenberg’s first attempt at writing a novel. I won’t go into detail about the book, but suffice it to say it was considered to be quite prophetic even though it was published after the September 11 attacks. So I guess I’m mad at Joel Rosenberg too … OK I’m not really mad at him either. To view Joel Rosenberg’s web site click here.

In Executive Orders, Tom Clancy illustrates that Iran and Islamic extremism was the biggest threat to the US in the world in the mid 1990’s and beyond. Not only did he understand that, but he understood that Iran was an equal threat to the Middle East and the rest of the world too. That still holds true today. In The Last Jihad, Joel Rosenberg does the same thing. (I’m not sure if there are others that have written books that have resembled actual events as closely as the books of these two men … it just happens to be that I’ve read their books.) That leads me to this question: If writers of current events fiction are able to accurately depict who our enemies are, what their capabilities are, and the what their intentions are (connect the dots), then why is that our government could not connect the dots?

Clancy also incorporates a subplot in Executive Orders that includes a couple of anti-government types that plan on detonating a truck bomb in Washington DC … does that sound familiar? I don’t know if Clancy added that to the book after the OKC bombing or if it was always a part of the story line. Remember, the OKC bombing took place on April 19, 1995, (the 2nd anniversary of the Waco tragedy). I tend to think it is the latter, since books like this usually take a few years to put together.

He also writes about how our freedoms can be used against us in order to commit a clandestine attack on our country. In the book the US is attacked with weapons of mass destruction (WMD’s). Iranian terrorists travel into the US on various airline flights and detonate biological weapons in cities across the United States causing death and panic throughout the country. That reminded me of just how easily the 9-11 terrorists gained access into the US only to later hijack airplanes on that horrible morning.

Executive Orders also has Iran take over Iraq and merge the two nation together. Sounds pretty farfetched doesn’t it? But just within the last few weeks, as talks are taking place for the United States to leave Iraq, diplomatic talks have also been taking place between those two countries. My instinct tells me that is not a good thing … especially when you consider that China and Russia have a vested interest in Iran.

Tom Clancy and Joel Rosenberg both write fictional books based off of real and made up events. They use their knowledge, skill, imagination, research, and experiences to create their works. After reading their books (and others), it is clearer to me that during the 1990’s no one was paying close enough attention to the threat of radical Islam. Here are some actual events took place in that time: the first WTC bombing, the US Embassy bombings, the OKC bombing, and the USS Cole bombing. All of those attacks took place during the Clinton years. Which leads me to wonder, if authors like these two could figure out who our most blood thirsty enemies are why couldn’t Bill Clinton? So who am I really mad at? ... you guessed it.

There you have it.
Pass it along if you like or let me know if I don’t have a clue.

Eddie