After reading a superb interview in the Boston Globe on Sunday, I picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s 24th book, Preemption. Though Dersh has liberal credentials, this is anything but a liberal screed. The author insists that, given the quality of the massive new threats, preemption is a must. The “only” questions: What? How much? When? What are the appropriate checks and balances? The issue is thorny and has profound consequences. Dershowitz, as always, lays out an incredible amount of evidence, going back centuries, and proceeds with an incisive line of reasoning. We should all, as informed citizens, be thinking about this. The choices are hellish, but, as I did, you’ll doubtless go away from this book with a startlingly new grasp of the issue. In short, it’s tough going … but worth it. (One damn thing is clear: This is not an issue that lends itself to sound bytes—despite both political parties’ predictable efforts to make it so.)
