Fire Alarm

Reviews / Votes

Bradley Podliska knows the Benghazi attack, response, and investigation, and his account clearly shows that partisan Republican investigations into Benghazi missed game-changing details. From the Obama administration's failed response to the attack, to the lies it told in the aftermath, to the poorly run investigations, both Democratic and Republican parties have major faults, and the families of the four murdered Americans deserve better. -- Adam Housley, Former Award-Winning News Correspondent In Fire Alarm, Bradley Podliska makes a useful contribution to the literature on political polarization and its consequences for governing. He shows how the House Benghazi Committee focused its investigation on gaining political advantage and damaging the reputation of Hillary Clinton. In the process, it deflected attention from more promising lines of inquiry and failed to determine responsibility for the U.S. response to the terrorist attack. -- George C. Edwards III, Distinguished Fellow, University of Oxford, and University Distinguished Professor and Jordan Chair Emeritus, Texas A&M University, Author, Why the Electoral College is Bad for America Bradley Podliska has written a searching, deeply relevant and devastating examination of the flawed manner in which the Congress conducts investigations, centered around the highly controversial Benghazi Committee. Podliska's analysis reveals much that is useful not only about the specifics of the Benghazi attack, but more importantly, about the way partisanship impedes and even blocks our government from functioning effectively. His discussion of the military failures in response to the attacks should be especially interesting to students of military planning and civil-military affairs. An outstanding book which deserves wide readership! -- Brigadier General James D. Campbell, U.S. Army (Retired) A remarkable book that provides a riveting account of the Benghazi attack and its short- and long-term consequences for U.S. politics while simultaneously using the tools of political science to understand the relationship between Congressional oversight and partisanship. Podliska's book will be highly interesting and relevant to a broad range of readers who seek to understand the sad state of American politics today and how this is related to the political witch hunt that took place after an attack on a far-flung U.S. diplomatic outpost a decade ago. -- Mieczyslaw P. Boduszynski, Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at Pomona College and former U.S. diplomat in Libya Podliska provides a detailed look at the events of the terrorist attack on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, as well as a timeline of responses from the White House,State Department, Pentagon, and CIA. He convincingly portrays how the executive branch was lax in providing guidance to military officials, resulting in a delayed, unfocused military response. Ultimately, a military response did not occur for twenty-three hours due to distance, time, coordination, and unclear chains of authority. The lack of clarity regarding whether the Benghazi attack was a protest that escalated out of control or a planned, armed mission specifically against the compound, led to public comments supporting the former story with lacking evidence. * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *