09/23/2025

BookMarc

The best books, their authors and the great people who inspire these stories / Les meilleurs livres, leurs auteurs et les grand.e.s de l’histoire qui les inspirent.Menu

Netanyahu Was Right

On October 14, 2023 By Marc NadeauIn Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, Bill O’Reilly, Donald Trump, Hamas, Iran, Israel, James Mattis, Martin Dugard, Mike Pompeo, Qasem Soleimani, St. Martin’s Press, Terrorism

I had the privilege of meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu years ago. During our discussion, he stressed the fact that it was crucial to support Israel because it is the first line of defense of the West and its values. As a commando soldier, diplomat and statesman, this man has accumulated a vast experience fighting extremism in its most brutal forms.

I was therefore not surprised to learn that he was the first world leader to make a congratulatory call to President Donald Trump, after the Americans liberated the world of the nefarious presence of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian warlord in charge of the Revolutionary Guards who was a combination of “James Bond, Erwin Rommel, and Lady Gaga rolled into one” for his supporters.

That information is revealed in Killing the Killers: The Secret War Against Terrorism (St. Martin’s Press) by veteran journalist Bill O’Reilly and acclaimed author Martin Dugard, whose books I reviewed on this blog.

I might incur criticism for writing what follows, but my perception of Donald Trump’s presidency – at the foreign policy level – has evolved after reading this insightful book. A few days ago, former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on X: “We told the Ayatollah and Soleimani: If you plot against or kill an American, we won’t stop by fighting the knucklehead proxies you fund and hide behind. We will hold the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leadership accountable. They did, and so we did.” Secretary Pompeo, mentioned several times in the book, refers here to the neutralization of Soleimani.

Truth be told, Donald Trump was determined to weaken the global terror network, not only by eliminating the Revolutionary Guards’ leader but also Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the first caliph of the Islamic State who notably had the blood of American humanitarian worker Kayla Mueller on his hands. Also, Qasim al-Rimi, the ruthless Yemeni terrorist emir of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, “responsible for an attempted bombing of a commercial airliner in the United States on Christmas Day 2009.”

There was a notable shift of policy and attitude between Donald Trump and his immediate predecessor. Probably because he appeared to trivialize the issue, “some see Barack as pursuing a less aggressive foreign policy”, write the authors. “But the truth is, he has ordered twice as many drone strikes as Bush. By the time Obama leaves office, he will have utilized drones to rain down death from the sky 1,878 times.” Both Presidents were nevertheless allergic to putting American boots on the ground.

“Weakness is dangerous,” wrote Secretary Pompeo on Twitter. He’s talking from experience because he was part of a relentless administration against the Tehran régime. From abandoning the Iran Nuclear Deal to moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, to the disappearance of Soleimani and the Abraham Accords – which saw many Arab countries normalize their relations with Israel – the Trump Administration stood firm against Iran. It wasn’t afraid to act unilaterally if need be, “something that rarely happened under President Obama,” explain the authors.

The Biden Administration, whose decision to leave Afghanistan in haste in 2021 has offered our enemies an opportunity to cheer and doubt our resolve, has taken a resolute approach since the barbarian aggression of Israel and the unspeakable butchery of its citizens and we can only applaud that.

Killing the Killers offers a highly informative, detailed, well-written and timely insider’s account of the War on Terror. You walk in Donald Trump’s footsteps and feel the tension enveloping the choppers carrying Special Forces soldiers to their mission. I tremendously enjoyed the authors’ attention to detail. Call me obsessive if you want, but I like to learn that the seven arches of the Westminster Bridge in London are “painted the same deep green as the padded benches in the House of Commons.” Or that the historical term Levant that accompanies the Middle East refers to the sun’s rising in the region. Their thoroughness enriches the content of their book.

The war on terrorists is a worldwide phenomenon. One week ago, hundreds of Israeli families were celebrating the festival of Sukkot, utterly unaware of the tragedy that was about to befall them in the murderous hands of the Hamas hordes. Kayla Mueller’s parents must know precisely how these grieving families feel. We are not immune from the evil blood lust fueled by intolerance.

I realize how prescient Prime Minister Netanyahu was during our conversation. No one can deny that Israel is on the first line combatting terror, but we are not far behind – whether we like it or not. “We must never permit murderers to define our time or warp our sense of normal,” said Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who is quoted in the book. We must never let Hamas, its benefactors and acolytes win in the consciences and on the battlefield.

Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard, Killing the Killers: The Secret War Against Terrorism, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2022, 288 pages.

I want to express my sincere gratitude towards Christina Morden of Raincoast Books for generously providing me with a copy of this book and to Joseph Rinaldi of St. Martin’s Press for his much appreciated collaboration with this blog.

kommonsentsjane