Sunday, November 23, 2008

Review: "Extreme Measures"

I just finished up with Flynn's newest Mitch Rapp book, "Extreme Measures". Extreme Measures is a term used in the book to describe Rapp's defense of himself and new side kick, Mike Nash, after they are caught roughing up (they call it interrogating) two high profile terror targets in Afghanistan.

Two terror cells have been broken up in recent months. However, those in the know suspect a third cell is still active and close to causing havoc in the U.S. The two terror suspects in Afghanistan may have knowledge of the pending attacks. Rapp and Nash intend to find out how much they know. That is up until their interrogation is broken up by a overzealous military officer who circumvents the knowledge gain and turns Rapp and Nash over to Congress.

The last half of the book involves Rapp defending himself in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a terrorist attack in Washington. Turns out Rapp was right (who would have guessed) and there was a third cell. There is a pretty cool ending when Rapp finds himself a direct target of the terrorists. From what I can tell, they picked the wrong federal building to storm. Rapp took care of things in typical fashion.

Flynn takes the opportunity to share his opinion on interrogation methods. Through his characters he states that terrorists shouldn't be protected by the Geneva Conventions because they themselves don’t follow the rules of warfare. That is, they don't follow the rules of war so America should not follow the rules of war. Like most everything, I can see both sides of this argument. Yes, humans are humans and we should treat humans fairly. On the other hand, here we have people who are trying to kill innocent civilians. Should we be able to use "Extreme Measures" when interrogating terrorists? I'll let you decide for yourselves.

4 comments:

Adam Fokken said...

No. That is why they are terrorists and we are Americans.

David said...

I agree with Adam. Having principles requires doing some things that just plain suck.

Seems pretty obvious, but I read once, its not the easy times which make a principled person.

Mac Noland said...

Would you feel the same if you knew they had information which could save your life? E.g, if you were trapped in a room, with a wired bomb, and only they knew the special code to disable the bomb; Would you use "Extreme Measures" to get the code or die with principal?

NOTE: I'm not arguing either. I'm conducing a small social survey.

Mort said...

I really liked the book, and thought the character that Flynn chose to elaborate his opinions on "extreme measures" was interesting.

And for the record, I'm pro-Rapp. :)