Sunday, July 08, 2007

How NOT To Fight Islamic Terror (Part 1) - Vol. 3 Issue 77

By now, it is axiomatic that we are “at war.” Yet the questions remain: with whom, where and how we are at war? It is no wonder that the American people have turned against President Bush’s inept and unfocused performance as Commander-in-Chief. It is not that the public doesn’t want to fight terrorism and protect the “homeland.” No, the close to 70% of us who favor some type of withdrawal from Iraq continue to be committed to defeating those who want to destroy our secular democracy. The problem is quite simple. The Bush-Cheney administration lacks the intelligence, creativity, statecraft and character to provide the high level of leadership needed to resolve the underlying conditions that have motivated worldwide jihad.

As yesterday’s New York Times showed, it is the top U.S. civilian leadership that has failed in almost every way to show courage, cunning and wartime ingenuity. According to top military and intelligence officials, a secret military operation in early 2005 to capture senior members of Al-Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas was cancelled at the last minute after top Bush administration officials decided it was too risky and could jeopardize relations with Pakistan. See, NY Times. U.S. intelligence officials had targeted Osama-bin-Laden’s top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, who is the man believed to run the terrorist group’s operations. Despite the urging of C.I.A. chief Porter Goss, the mission was aborted by order of then Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. Why? Rumsfeld was “concerned” about the effect of such a raid on the shaky government of Pakistan’s “President” (read, dictator) Perez Mushareff. You history buffs will remember that it was Cheney and Rumsfeld who armed the mujahadin in Afghanistan, on the theory that they would get rid of the Soviet occupation. Those “mujahadin” are now known as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The protection of Pakistan from itself was (and is) apparently more important to Bush and Cheney than the destruction of Al-Qaeda’s leaders. Life is truly confusing, is it not?

Semper fi,

Savant