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They Just Don't Get It: How Washington Is Still Compromising Your Safety--and What You Can Do About It

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No more politics—just the truth about what we can and must do to protect ourselves.

Fox News military analyst Colonel David Hunt has dedicated his career to fighting terrorism. A twenty-nine-year U.S. Army veteran, he has helped take out an active terrorist camp, trained the FBI and Special Forces in counterterrorism tactics, and served as security adviser to six different Olympic Games.

And Colonel Hunt is angry. Why? Because even after the terrorist attacks on our country and on Americans around the world, the people charged with protecting us—the politicians and the bureaucrats in military and intelligence—still aren’t getting the job done.

They Just Don’t Get It provides a much-needed wake-up call to all Americans. As politicians posture and pundits bicker, we’re losing sight of the fundamental We’re still not equipped to win the War on Terror. In fact, the terrorist threat is far worse than we feared, as made frighteningly clear by the fifty pages of documents published here for the first time—including a shocking manual taken from the terrorists themselves.

But instead of just complaining, Colonel Hunt tells us exactly what we must do—without regard to political game-playing—to emerge victorious in the challenge that history has given us. These are changes we can make at every level—as individual citizens, as a government, and as a military power. As he shows in this book, while the government and our military lead the fight to protect us, ordinary citizens can and must contribute.

They Just Don’t Get It

• What you can do to keep your family safe

• How many of the government’s recent “reforms” are mere window dressing or, worse, counterproductive

• How we can fight this war and still safeguard our civil liberties and the American way of life

• How to fix the intelligence disaster (and yes, the politicians in D.C. still haven’t fixed it)

• How we got into this mess in the first it’s mostly because our government let the problem fester for three decades

Colonel Hunt is no cautious bureaucrat or finger-pointer looking for political gain. He is a straight shooter with deep insight into what’s happening in the War on Terror—on the ground and in the government. They Just Don’t Get It lays out in clear and compelling terms the steps we must take—all of us—to win the War on Terror and ensure our survival as a free, proud, and strong nation.

From They Just Don’t Get It

We’re fighting a war for our very survival, so we’d better figure out how to win. That’s why I’m writing this book—to show us how we can win, how we can protect ourselves. As a Fox News military analyst, I’m paid to offer insight into how our armed forces are conducting the fight against our enemies. But this book shows that to win the War on Terror we need to concern ourselves with more than just military tactics.

For one thing, we need to look at what our political leaders are doing. The sad truth is that they still don’t get it.

Then there’s intelligence. You’ve heard about our intelligence failures, but I doubt you know how bad it really is—even after the “reforms.” I’m going to tell you.

And another critical dimension to this story usually gets overlooked—what you can do. The fact is, you can do a lot. Hell, you must do a lot.


A selection of American Compass

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

2 people are currently reading
37 people want to read

About the author

David Hunt

6 books15 followers
Colonel David Hunt has over 29 years of military experience, including extensive operational experience in Special Operations, Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Operations. Most recently, Colonel Hunt served as Tactical Advisor in Bosnia where he facilitated all national intelligence matters for the Commander in Chief, as well as coordinating a $350,000,000 national security program for the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency in 1997.

Prior to this, he served as counter terrorism coordinator to the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea. In this capacity, David Hunt planned, choreographed and implemented the first United States national response for an Olympic event in Korea in conjunction with Korean National Intelligence and the Korean Crisis Response Agency as the counter-terrorist coordinator.

His role as a leader began with a Special Forces Operational Detachment of 12 soldiers, expanding to command a brigade of over 1,000 personnel. He received his Master's degree in English from Norwich University in 1981, and later graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University in 1991.

David Hunt has lectured for the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and several other high profile agencies, as well as state and local police officials.

Recently, he has shared his expertise in over 200 televised interviews on Operation Iraqi Freedom. Bill O'Reilly of the "O'Reilly Factor" called David Hunt the "Best Military Analyst in the Business" and Fox's "Go to Guy on the War."

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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
Profile Image for Terry Cornell.
524 reviews60 followers
June 22, 2015
Quick read, published in 2005, but sadly 10 years later our federal government is still not adequately protecting our country from terrorists. Col. Hunt points out several simple guidelines to better ensure every American's safety, many common sense. Yet here we are, deeper in the muck. One of my favorite lines is that just bombing them doesn't work--yet that seems to be the major strategy today.
Profile Image for Pierre.
122 reviews2 followers
December 3, 2007
Col. Hunt reiterates my personal stance on the war against terrorism:
1) Kill terrorists and don't coddle the governments that harbor them. A common refrain I hear from people is "What did Iraq have to do with terrorism?" And the answer is that Iraq is (and was) a State sponsor of terrorism, even going as far as giving checks to the families of suicide bombers in Israel.
2) Create and pass sensible security laws, such as an internal security service to combat domestic terrorism, without trampling on civil rights.
3) Reform the current government bureaucracy and agency structure
4) Really go after these terrorists where they are hiding. And kill them.
Profile Image for Pamela.
57 reviews
September 16, 2008
First book I read that made me realize Iraq might actually be a mess. Col. Hunt tells it like it is.
2 reviews
January 6, 2009
irreplaceable & vital; in the 21st century, conventional warfare is no longer effective and is in fact obsolete and dangerous (i.e., for the nation attempting to wage it)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews

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