Rating: 
Summary: Teething pains of a new Old European
Review: To paraphrase a famous scene from the film Casablanca, George Soros is "shocked, shocked" to see that the United States uses military power to enforce its will from time to time. He thinks the US should act more like the new, post-Cold War Europe, which relies on international cooperation and political chicanery to achieve its ends. That the new, post-Cold war Europe can do this because its ends duck most of the world's thornier issues gets skipped over in the Soros telling. For a more responsible, more educated and far more interesting account of how and why the US and Europe behave the way they do in global affairs, read Robert Kagan's article "Power and Weakness", which may be downloaded for free at www.policyreview.org. That Soros tries to turn Kagan and his Project for the New American Century into a warmongering caricature, rather than openly debate his thought-process, is just one more hypocritical flaw in this one-sided book.
Rating: 
Summary: Powerful Mind From Finance Illuminates Murky Politics
Review: We all should be grateful to George Soros. After having worked hard for several decades and made a fortune, he could do anything he wants, go anywhere he likes. What he chooses is to use his wealth to help people around the world. In writing this book, he has spent his precious time to alert Americans to the dangers they face from their own government. Unlike many a pundit, Soros is not looking for personal gain or seeking political appointment. He is one of the most astute observers around, and a rare one who is not pursuing a personal interest.
Listen to Soros, folks. It is worth getting this book just to read his insights as to why Bush really went to war in Iraq and contrast the reality he presents to the misleading pap offered by the administration. Truth may be uncomfortable, but ignoring it gets one into bad messes. Soros predicted a quagmire well before many people realized the consequences of the ill-conceived foreign adventure. No surprise; he is well attuned to deception by powers-that-be.
From his early years in Hungary to his later efforts to help build civil society in Eastern Europe, he saw close up the horrors that have been inflicted by lying, lawless, thuggish governments. His concern that America is sliding in that direction deserves to be taken seriously. Bush partisans are demonizing Soros for his pains and attempting to smear him every which way they can. Americans can judge for themselves by reading this book.
People complain that Soros rambles in his writing or his arguments are not always clear or fully argued. Considering the grave issues at hand, stylistic quibbles sound petty in the extreme. And while Soros is certainly not the only writer on the topic, he brings to it an exceptional skill for analysis. One benefits from reading him whether he is analyzing markets or a war. In any case, this book is easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: correcting mistakes of the Bush administration
Review: Would that our current leaders were half as wise about terrorism, multilateralism, open societies and nation building as Mr. Soros. We would be in much better shape than we are today if they were.Soros has excellent suggestions on combating terrorism, fostering democracy abroad using a coalition of influential democratic nations within the UN framework, and regaining the moral high ground lost by the Bush administration. This book should be read by all of our political leaders as well as the general public.
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