The Ultimate Vanishing Act

The Ultimate Vanishing Act is a rare piece of historical narrative literature, it is also a timely contribution to world security.

How different the world might be today, the author suggests, had the British realized that they did not need to propel the ultra-fundamentalist Sunni Islamic sect, the Wahhabi, to power, in order to establish the Saudi kingdom. Or, when Eisenhower was inform of the first international Jihad conference in Cairo in 1957, and of that assembly's declaration of war against the United States, the activities of Sayyid Qutb, and the Muslim Brotherhood, he had not dismissed it as the ramblings of a few fanatics.

Perhaps, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser, might reconsider his 1998 remarks when he was asked … do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

Brzezinski's answer is revealing:

What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban and some stirred-up Muslims or the collapse of the Soviet empire? (Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 1998).

Unfortunately, as the author makes one painfully aware, to this day all too many world leaders still harbor the opinion that we are dealing with no more than some stirred-up Muslims. However, as this book attempts to make evident, the advent of the Taliban and radical Islam is at least as important to world history as the collapse of the Soviet Union. And, the challenge to world security that indiscriminate attacks on civilians present is no less formidable.

The Ultimate Vanishing Act, is written in the belief that the average citizen can understand the forces which drive world events, and can, or perhaps must, contribute to the discussion about what can and should be done in their name. The author reminds us that matters such as countering the indiscriminate use of violence against civilian populations by radical Islamic insurgents, is too important a matter to leave to the current crop of military-might-believing-in, and most of whom represent the Conservative end of the political spectrum, who dominate the intelligence and security services in Europe and the United States.

Gregory's book is an important contribution to an understanding of current world events.