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See you in New York
In early 2015 two Israeli Soldiers were killed in an attack across the northern border in the Golan Heights. Then a massive attack by ISIL on Egyptian security forces killed dozens along the southern border in the Sinai. Where will the next attack occur? The race is on to stop another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
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Mike Evans
63 books25 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Michael D. Evans
Michael D. Evans
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
July 25, 2026
I definitely should have taken the printer-paper pages and skeletal publishing information as a warning: this has to be one of the dullest, most unintelligible, and stagnant pieces of political writing I’ve ever read. Often, I find politically charged writing fiery, passionate, and thus engaging — whether or not I agree, my hope is to glean a new perspective and shake up my preconceptions. Unfortunately, Mike Evans instead comes across like a man convulsing and foaming at the mouth on your nearest street corner, screaming that the end is nigh.
Fittingly, I found this for three dollars in a bargain bin — which feels less like a coincidence than a verdict already rendered by everyone who read it before me. I foolishly made the mistake of expecting a balanced, historically informed, thoughtful treatment of terror organizations in the Middle East. Instead, I was lambasted by a word salad of meandering vitriol and partisan politics.
I stuck it out for four chapters before the redundancy of his ideas, the lack of nuance and substance, and the disjointedness of his argumentation forced me to put the book down. Don’t let the chapter titles fool you. They give the illusion of thematic organization, but each chapter rapidly devolves into the same nonsensical polemics.
To be fair, there were moments of reason and believable concern, but they were quickly drowned out by how underdeveloped and elementary his claims were. For instance: he seriously suggests that Obama’s decision to replace his Afghanistan commander in 2009 — a single personnel change made on his own defense secretary’s advice — was actually a calculated scheme to emasculate the military and destabilize world peace. One command change, driven by a stalled war strategy, somehow becomes proof of a plot against the country he leads. This is the book’s argumentation in miniature: a kernel of real, defensible history (there was genuine friction between the Obama White House and the military over Afghanistan) stretched past recognition into a hard-to-believe conspiracy.
It is excruciatingly clear that Mike Evans is an ideologue disguised as an authority on Middle East relations. But this isn’t a review born of distaste for his politics or mere disagreement. More than anything, it’s a dislike for the anti-intellectual, hypocritical, and non-sensical assertions of modern conservative “thinkers”. I don’t mind conviction, or even the potential for offense, when the ideas are strong and the writing is linear, and it makes sense.
The only shelf this book belongs on is in his own personal museum, where he can glaze himself — and be glazed by his supporters — for his “steadfast resolve and support for Christian Zionism,” right next to a painting of himself as Jesus Christ with six-pack abs.
Fittingly, I found this for three dollars in a bargain bin — which feels less like a coincidence than a verdict already rendered by everyone who read it before me. I foolishly made the mistake of expecting a balanced, historically informed, thoughtful treatment of terror organizations in the Middle East. Instead, I was lambasted by a word salad of meandering vitriol and partisan politics.
I stuck it out for four chapters before the redundancy of his ideas, the lack of nuance and substance, and the disjointedness of his argumentation forced me to put the book down. Don’t let the chapter titles fool you. They give the illusion of thematic organization, but each chapter rapidly devolves into the same nonsensical polemics.
To be fair, there were moments of reason and believable concern, but they were quickly drowned out by how underdeveloped and elementary his claims were. For instance: he seriously suggests that Obama’s decision to replace his Afghanistan commander in 2009 — a single personnel change made on his own defense secretary’s advice — was actually a calculated scheme to emasculate the military and destabilize world peace. One command change, driven by a stalled war strategy, somehow becomes proof of a plot against the country he leads. This is the book’s argumentation in miniature: a kernel of real, defensible history (there was genuine friction between the Obama White House and the military over Afghanistan) stretched past recognition into a hard-to-believe conspiracy.
It is excruciatingly clear that Mike Evans is an ideologue disguised as an authority on Middle East relations. But this isn’t a review born of distaste for his politics or mere disagreement. More than anything, it’s a dislike for the anti-intellectual, hypocritical, and non-sensical assertions of modern conservative “thinkers”. I don’t mind conviction, or even the potential for offense, when the ideas are strong and the writing is linear, and it makes sense.
The only shelf this book belongs on is in his own personal museum, where he can glaze himself — and be glazed by his supporters — for his “steadfast resolve and support for Christian Zionism,” right next to a painting of himself as Jesus Christ with six-pack abs.
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