Selective War On Terror: Our Disaster In The Making

[NATO AIR]

Onedomino coined the phrase "selective" war on terror a few days ago. Its a great way to describe the strategic miscalculation of this administration, the leaders of Congress and those in the intelligence and diplomatic services. Only the Pentagon seems to understand this basic truth everyone else ignores.

JIHAD ANYWHERE IS A CLEAR, PRESENT DANGER TO AMERICA.

Why?

Consider our successful war on Al-Queda. Its leaders on the run, apprehended or dead. Its hiding spots in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq being raided, dismantled and destroyed. Its idealogy dying a slow, agonizing death, gasps of terror springing up to slaughter Iraqi children and Afghan aid workers. The terror masters who dreamed up 9/11 now face their worst nightmare; an angry, determined American president and the world's most powerful fighting force; a deadly, courageous and always capable US military.

Let's consider the pats on the back and high-fives rendered.

Now look up from the narrow focus on Al-Queda and the fallen tyrants of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Palestinian terrorists are taking over the PA by any means neccessary, whether at the ballot box or with the bullet.

Iranian terrorists lie in wait, eager to deploy against American and Israeli targets should the need arise, practicing on student demonstrators for now.

Hezbollah, the deadliest, most well-organized terrorist force in the world, lies in wait, perhaps preparing for a Lebanese civil war, maybe awaiting the signal from Iran to start terrorizing the US.

Indonesian militants grow in number despite a government counter-insurgency campaign, and in their brutality fed by desperation, attempt to spread their jihad to Southern Thailand and the Philippines with alarming progress, assisted by the enemy government's ineptitude and corruption.

Homegrown Pakistani militants fill ever expanding ranks and surge in stature in Pakistan, growing more emboldened with every misstep and "outrage" committed by that nation's military president, Gen. Musharraf.

The Saudi royal family grows stronger by wiping out Al-Queda with one hand and fermenting and financing new fundamentalist groups, ready to export jihad wherever it is necessary.

Jihad is the dominant philosophy in Muslim Nigeria, where militants prepare to ignite what may become the world's most horrific civil war, an Islamic insurgency that will destroy Africa's most powerful nation.

Jihad is justified against the Muslims of Darfur because of their disobedience to the regime in Khartoum. Jihad is genocide in that part of the troubled continent.

Do we need to address in depth Syria, Egypt and Chechnya? God knows how many militants are in Europe and what they are planning.

And yet, instead of taking the war to our enemies (though we claim we are), we lie back in defense.... what some call 9/10 style. We're waiting for the jihadists slaughtering innocents in Russia, Israel and Darfur to attack us. We're letting them thrive, in some cases supporting and working with them (Sudan, Saudi Arabia). We're setting ourselves up for a major disaster, and putting into motion a chain of events that will see jihad murdering millions in the coming years.

We're supposed to be in this for the long haul. We're supposed to be preventing this from ever happening again. We're supposed to be not only promoting democracy as reform in the Middle East but wiping out fundamentalist Islam in all of its shapes and forms. We're winning on one count, yet putting forward half-hearted efforts toward the latter. To steal a Navy phrase, we're pumping water but not patching the holes. At our peril.

 

[Annie]

Hey NATO, did you catch this?

http://www.belgraviadispatch.com/archives/004526.html

Too long and too many links, but I think you'll find it interesting...

 

[NATO AIR]

Hey NATO, did you catch this?

http://www.belgraviadispatch.com/archives/004526.html

Too long and too many links, but I think you'll find it interesting...

I actually did (via Instapundit), and my comment on that post morphed with some more thought into this thread.

Though he and others really piss me off. I write these guys daily asking them to take a stand and say something, especially in light of recent events, and I get fluff like this. Instapundit, powerline, this blog, etc etc really need to get off the sidelines.

It was interesting though. For once I'm with the "blame America" crowd because this jihadist disaster is now happening with America's support.

 

[Annie]

Devil's advocate here. I agree with you in reality, just don't think the US is going to go to Sudan. With that said, why Sudan and not other locales? If we try to right all the wrongs, what would the cost be?

 

[NATO AIR]

Devil's advocate here. I agree with you in reality, just don't think the US is going to go to Sudan. With that said, why Sudan and not other locales? If we try to right all the wrongs, what would the cost be?

You're going to make me actually type a lot aren't you?


Darfur- You go one of two routes:

a) lean onthe African Union (just like Bush leaned on the House Republicans to kill that bill) to create a mandate that allows for protection of civilians and property and beef up the force, offering whatever logistical assistance they require as well as intel.
b) or if they don't, send in private contractors to train the rebel groups, as we did succesfully with the Croatians and as we should have done with the RPF in Rwanda.

South Sudan-

a) marines or Green berets start training the militias there into one united force (as many of their leaders have requested) that can forcefully respond to an invasion by the North (as will happen in about 6 years when the Southern Sudanese vote for independence from the North per the peace deal we got implemented)

Nigeria

a) offer the Nigerian military whatever it needs to augment and expand its already potent fighting force.
b) offer to help train the Nigerians into implementing a modern logistics system, something that even the fledgling Iraqi and Afghan armies have, and the lack thereof that crippled Nigerian fighting efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
c) closely align with Nigeria's intelligence services, ferret out jihadist allies and find out who in the government is supporting their aims.
You really, really don't want a civil war in Nigeria between the Christians and Muslims. It will be bloody beyond belief. The Crusades in Africa but worse.

Pakistan
a) continue and expand our efforts to rid fundamentalists out of the Pakistani military
b) promote and reward constructive engagement with India to move closer towards removing one of the two great causes of fundamentalist support in Pakistan (Kashmir)
c) richly reward both sides for the eradication of jihadists in Kashmir while promoting economic development between all three sides, increasing the cost and risks of popular support for insurgency.

Egypt
a) start developing our own intel on who's who in Egyptian Islamic politics. We need to find out who is really with the fundamentalists, who just hates Mburak and us for supporting him and who is preparing for jihad with outside assistance.

Chechnya
a) offer Putin and the Chechen government there a deal of deals.
America will pay THEM to allow us to train their police and special anti-terrorism teams. The Russian forces are corrupt, ill-led and poorly equipped. Its time for America-Russia relations to take a real step, that of a friend helping another friend in a time of need and not making a big deal out of it so as to embarass them. The Russians are going to lose territory, lives and treasure if they don't address their critical problems, namely outdated training, logistics and leadership.

Thailand
a) Allow the special recouncillation commission there to go its course and hope it helps heal some of the wounds in the Muslim South by airing publically for the first time their often real and terrible grievances with the North. Ask privately if the well-respected King can get involved personally afterwards to push for better training of the police forces, who have been responsible for the majority of the serious human rights issues in the South. Hope and pray the PM doesn't screw it all up by being too forceful at the wrong time and too poltically cynical at the right time.

Phillippines
a) Continue to have the US military involved in training and support of the military. Start up a new team of law enforcement members from across the US and send them to places like here, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Russia and train the police forces in modern techniques that win the support of the people and the well-deserved hatred of the frustrated terrorists. Promote and reward continued good governance and forcefully push for better anti-corruption programs in the miltiary and police. Its killing them right now.

Saudi Arabia-
I leave this out of respect for Onedomino, he knows a lot more about this than i do.

Iran-
Ditto, as well as you Kathianne. Though I would add we need to quietly build a system of support and cooperation between us and the democracy and reform advocates there (via a 3rd party like our NGOs that did so well in Serbia, Georgia and the Ukraine) that can provide us intel on who is a jihadist, who is strongly with the government, who's wavering, etc etc.

Out of all these, notice that we are only committing a small number of troops to train these nation's militaries or the locals fighting against the jihadists in all the cases but one (Iran)

I do believe there will be a US-led liberation of Iran. It may be done from within with US support. It will not be nearly as easy as Iraq, because of Russia, China and other nations serious multi-billion dollar deals with Iran over energy and trade.

Robert D. Kaplan is writing a book called Imperial Grunts: How the US military
is making the world more secure, one nation at a time, via training and support. It will be out in the fall and I believe that after reading that, a lot of what I've said here and elsewhere will be validated. We can make a tremendous difference without a massive influx of troops and money. We just need patience, vision and quiet, tacit and consistent support.

 

[Annie]

I like Kaplan and will read the book. One battle at a time, makes sense to me. Problem is that some of these such as Sudan, don't really have the luxury of time. We are short of troops, especially special ops forces, when looking at clear and present dangers for instance NK, Iran, SA...

 

[NATO AIR]

I like Kaplan and will read the book. One battle at a time, makes sense to me. Problem is that some of these such as Sudan, don't really have the luxury of time. We are short of troops, especially special ops forces, when looking at clear and present dangers for instance NK, Iran, SA...

Well as Kaplan has already written (and others, if you want I'll send over my Atlantic Monthly subscriber info so you can read Kaplan's articles about Marines training folks in Niger, Columbia and the Phillippines), these troops are already on the ground in a lot of places training folks and making a substantial difference.

This is one place where the military leadership is being farsighted for once, looking beyond present problems and preparing for (and trying to avert) future problems.

In Darfur/Southern Sudan, we could have private contractors do it... a lot of those guys still have a bit of a conscience/idealism left and will do it because of the genocide and slavery that the Sudanese regime has used against them. We saw the same interest in Croatia/Bosnia/Liberia and the Brits did in Sierra Leone.

 

[Annie]

Well as Kaplan has already written (and others, if you want I'll send over my Atlantic Monthly subscriber info so you can read Kaplan's articles about Marines training folks in Niger, Columbia and the Phillippines), these troops are already on the ground in a lot of places training folks and making a substantial difference.

This is one place where the military leadership is being farsighted for once, looking beyond present problems and preparing for (and trying to avert) future problems.

In Darfur/Southern Sudan, we could have private contractors do it... a lot of those guys still have a bit of a conscience/idealism left and will do it because of the genocide and slavery that the Sudanese regime has used against them. We saw the same interest in Croatia/Bosnia/Liberia and the Brits did in Sierra Leone.

Send me! Now at the same time, can you really argue we are doing NOTHING? In actuality seems then we are doing what we can. We are NOT the UN, gathering in all those $, then accepting Zimbabwe into the "nations of the world."

 

[William Joyce]

The only reason we have a "war on terror" to begin with is because our nation has become the sock puppet of Israel.

Now, the traitors are being arrested:

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/002346.htm

As the often-correct Malkin points out, Instapundit and other "conservatives" have had nothing to say about this. Where are ya, boys? We don't need to be poking around backstreets of Nigeria to find the threat to our nation, our sovereignty, and our American way of life. We need to be poking around the Pentagon, AIPAC, and everywhere else the neocon partisans of Israel are found.

 

[NATO AIR]

Send me! Now at the same time, can you really argue we are doing NOTHING? In actuality seems then we are doing what we can. We are NOT the UN, gathering in all those $, then accepting Zimbabwe into the "nations of the world."

I said at the beginning the Pentagon was leading the way in doing something... actually a lot.

Everybody else is sucking pretty bad.

Darfur is just the poster boy for seriously underestimating and misreading the threat and the situation.

 

[onedomino]

Send me! Now at the same time, can you really argue we are doing NOTHING? In actuality seems then we are doing what we can. We are NOT the UN, gathering in all those $, then accepting Zimbabwe into the "nations of the world."

We are not doing what we can. We are doing what we will. We are stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from the future and throwing our volunteer military at the "war on terror." But it is not a war in the sense that there is a national mobilization to produce military victory. Save for US military families and relatives, few American lives are different because of the War on Terror. We are not nationally mobilized to defeat the enemy that NATO correctly points out above. America does not have the political will necessary to defeat radical Islamic fundamentalism. Our politicians are not even willing to name with who we are at war. We do not have the political will necessary to pay for the war. Instead we steal the money from the future. Either we are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary, or we do not have the political leadership, or both. In WW2, America had the political will necessary to win the war. There were 10 million Americans under arms. Today, we have a tough time producing enough troops to police Iraq.

 

[Annie]

We are not doing what we can. We are doing what we will. We are stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from the future and throwing our volunteer military at the "war on terror." But it is not a war in the sense that there is a national mobilization to produce military victory. Save for US military families and relatives, few American lives are different because of the War on Terror. We are not nationally mobilized to defeat the enemy that NATO correctly points out above. America does not have the political will necessary to defeat radical Islamic fundamentalism. Our politicians are not even willing to name with who we are at war. We do not have the political will necessary to pay for the war. Instead we steal the money from the future. Either we are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary, or we do not have the political leadership, or both. In WW2, America had the political will necessary to win the war. There were 10 million Americans under arms. Today, we have a tough time producing enough troops to police Iraq.

I agree, in part. Actually all of our lives are different, though the difference is not yet noticed or acknowledged. Airports, shipping, airwaves are all different than 9/10/01.

We are NOT willing to do what needs to be done, yet! It will happen, unless we become very lucky, which is unlikely. The 4 years that have seperated the attack and today has convinced most that 9/11 was the exception. Not true, but so much more comforting. The Islamic extremists will get another hit in, unless we are lucky-repeating, not likely.

Don't know that GW is the best or worst that could happen today. Truth is, he was great in the immediate aftermath. Now, I am confused if he is playing FDR, bidding his time, or he's clueless.

 

[archangel]

We are not doing what we can. We are doing what we will. We are stealing hundreds of billions of dollars from the future and throwing our volunteer military at the "war on terror." But it is not a war in the sense that there is a national mobilization to produce military victory. Save for US military families and relatives, few American lives are different because of the War on Terror. We are not nationally mobilized to defeat the enemy that NATO correctly points out above. America does not have the political will necessary to defeat radical Islamic fundamentalism. Our politicians are not even willing to name with who we are at war. We do not have the political will necessary to pay for the war. Instead we steal the money from the future. Either we are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary, or we do not have the political leadership, or both. In WW2, America had the political will necessary to win the war. There were 10 million Americans under arms. Today, we have a tough time producing enough troops to police Iraq.

You just summed it up..."Political will" :clap1:

 

[tim_duncan2000]

I agree. I think the US and so-called allies (I say so-called because they often do not behave like allies) needs to go after these groups wherever they hide.

I also am tired of the politically correct bullshit where we worry about offending Muslims. I'm not saying that this should be considered a war against all Muslims. However, the Muslims who do not identify with the terrorists need to speak out and join in the fight. I know they are out there, but I don't seem to hear much from them.

 

[IControlThePast]

I think the most important thing to do is remove the culture that feels killing people will get you 70 virgins in Heaven to tell you the truth. We need to Americanize-size the culture in the Middle East if we want long term stability, and Iraq is a good foothold for that.

We are missing the support to rid the world of terrorists. We would either need a draft (not happening because it's not the will of the people) or to cooperate with Allies. But our "Allies" don't seem to want to help. They can't call themselves Good if there is no Evil left. We need more money than we have available to carry out the War on Terror, and right now we should make the government side of our Economy strong by paying off the national debt. The problem with most solutions to Terrorism is they take money. Again, culture is the solution to the problems we are facing, especially against multi-national Terrorist organization. We recieve the economic benefit of expanding our businesses into these new markets, so this actually helps strenghten our Economy. Have business pay the costs instead of the government.