Richard Clarke’s dramatic statement to the grieving families during the 9/11 Commission hearings touched a raw nerve across America. Not only had our government failed to prevent the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it has proven itself incapable of handling the majority of our most crucial national security issues, from Iraq to Hurricane Katrina and beyond.

In Your Government Failed You, Clarke draws on his 30 years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community to give readers a privileged, if horrifying, look into the debacle of government policies, discovering patterns in the failures and offering ways to stop the cycle once and for all.