A_Jacks
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2001
- Posts
- 624
John LeBoutillier
Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001
Do we really want to win the War on Terrorism?
Is the administration truly going to "eliminate evil from the face of the earth" - as the president said on Friday - or are we going to go halfway and settle for a cosmetic victory?
Let me give you a brief example of just such a cosmetic solution:
The 'Noriega' Solution:
More than 11 years ago the United States government - in its ongoing war against drugs - claimed - correctly - that Gen. Manuel Noriega was directly involved in running drugs into the U.S. from Panama.
After days of house-to-house hunting - and dozens of casualties - Noriega was caught and flown by DEA agents to Miami, where he was tried, convicted and is serving his sentence in a Florida facility.
But guess what?
The drug flow increased even after he left. Today more drugs come into the U.S. from Panama now than when Noriega was in charge!
Capturing him was a cosmetic victory.
Stopping drugs - like stopping terrorism - cannot be achieved by the mere capture or killing of an Osama bin Laden. The problem goes much deeper - and higher.
Are we really going to do what is necessary to "wipe this evil from the face of the earth" - or will we settle for less?
What is needed is the following:
1) END STATE SUPPORT: Contrary to what Vice President Dick Cheney said on "Meet the Press" today, it is simply incomprehensible to claim that Saddam Hussein and his government intelligence agencies were not involved in this World Trade Center/Pentagon action - as well as the USS Cole bombing and other anti-U.S. terrorist activities.
It sounds as if the administration - right from the afternoon of the attacks - had Osama Bin Laden as its main target. He is, after all, already under indictment for other bombings including the two U.S. Embassies in Africa. He has been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.
What is impossible to fathom is that bin Laden - operating from a tent in Afghanistan using couriers instead of a satellite phone - and his band of fanatical believers have the wherewithal to obtain Top Secret White House/Secret Service codes, not to mention the ability to organize and coordinate multiple simultaneous hijackings from four busy U.S. airports.
Such intelligence and spying has all the earmarks of a state intelligence service. The Iraqis, for example, are known to have just such spies here in the U.S. operating under cover and from their U.N. Embassy.
Saddam uses bin Laden as his "cut-out" - to provide deniability.
Cheney too quickly dismissed Iraq's possible involvement in this - and other - terrorist actions.
2) MONEY: Few are talking today about the lifeblood of terrorism: money to conduct operations. This WTC/Pentagon disaster - simple as it seems - still required many men, years of flight training, language training, housing, travel, food, expenses, communication and other expenses. There are published reports of several of these suicide pilots flashing "thick wads of cash" during their training period in Florida.
Where does all this money come from?
Some say Osama bin Laden is loaded - that he inherited $360 million from his Saudi family. But Associated Press reports that the Saudi government froze those assets in 1992.
Others have reported that rich Arab sheiks - including several who live in Arab states friendly to the U.S. - "contributed" to a "charity" run by bin Laden - and that these funds are what pays for these terrorist operations.
The U.S. government needs to intercept the money. We need to go over there and confiscate the money from anyone contributing - either knowingly or "unknowingly" - to bin Laden's "charities." This is going to anger a lot of rich people - and the Saudi government and the governments of other pro-U.S. Arab states such as Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Perhaps these rich sheiks are paying protection money to these terrorists. Or maybe they secretly sympathize with Osama bin Laden. Whatever their motivation, we must cut off the source of money to these operatives.
3) U.S. FORCES OCCUPYING ARAB STATES: We will not win the "war against evil" if we settle for "lightning strikes" into select areas to capture a bin Laden or to wipe out a nest of suspected terrorists. (The Israelis have done this for years - and it doesn't work.) We must do much, much more.
We need to remove Saddam Hussein and his Bath Party from power in Baghdad. We - the allies including England, Canada, Japan and Jordan - then need to administer Iraq until a democratic government is elected there by the Iraqi people free of the fear and intimidation of Saddam and his henchmen.
Such an action is a huge undertaking - bigger even than the 1990-1991 Desert Shield/Desert Storm activation - but it is the only way to wipe the evil of terrorism from the earth.
Once we have cleaned out Iraq, the message to other dangerous nearby Muslim states - Syria, Iran, Lybia, Sudan - is clear: if you do not prune all terrorist organization and stop all financing from within your borders, we will come into your country and remove your government.
Again, this is the only way to win this war on terrorism.
Capturing Osama bin Laden is a good thing. We should have done it years ago.
But it is not enough.
It is a Noriega-like cosmetic solution to a much deeper and more difficult problem.
I fear the administration will not do the hard things.
It is up to all of us to support the administration - and to also pressure them to go all the way.
No president has ever been given such a blank check from Congress and such unlimited support from the American people to do what needs to be done.
This is a unique moment. Let us not squander it by doing too little.
We either do it right this time - or in the future we will face even more ghastly acts of terror.
Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001
Do we really want to win the War on Terrorism?
Is the administration truly going to "eliminate evil from the face of the earth" - as the president said on Friday - or are we going to go halfway and settle for a cosmetic victory?
Let me give you a brief example of just such a cosmetic solution:
The 'Noriega' Solution:
More than 11 years ago the United States government - in its ongoing war against drugs - claimed - correctly - that Gen. Manuel Noriega was directly involved in running drugs into the U.S. from Panama.
After days of house-to-house hunting - and dozens of casualties - Noriega was caught and flown by DEA agents to Miami, where he was tried, convicted and is serving his sentence in a Florida facility.
But guess what?
The drug flow increased even after he left. Today more drugs come into the U.S. from Panama now than when Noriega was in charge!
Capturing him was a cosmetic victory.
Stopping drugs - like stopping terrorism - cannot be achieved by the mere capture or killing of an Osama bin Laden. The problem goes much deeper - and higher.
Are we really going to do what is necessary to "wipe this evil from the face of the earth" - or will we settle for less?
What is needed is the following:
1) END STATE SUPPORT: Contrary to what Vice President Dick Cheney said on "Meet the Press" today, it is simply incomprehensible to claim that Saddam Hussein and his government intelligence agencies were not involved in this World Trade Center/Pentagon action - as well as the USS Cole bombing and other anti-U.S. terrorist activities.
It sounds as if the administration - right from the afternoon of the attacks - had Osama Bin Laden as its main target. He is, after all, already under indictment for other bombings including the two U.S. Embassies in Africa. He has been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.
What is impossible to fathom is that bin Laden - operating from a tent in Afghanistan using couriers instead of a satellite phone - and his band of fanatical believers have the wherewithal to obtain Top Secret White House/Secret Service codes, not to mention the ability to organize and coordinate multiple simultaneous hijackings from four busy U.S. airports.
Such intelligence and spying has all the earmarks of a state intelligence service. The Iraqis, for example, are known to have just such spies here in the U.S. operating under cover and from their U.N. Embassy.
Saddam uses bin Laden as his "cut-out" - to provide deniability.
Cheney too quickly dismissed Iraq's possible involvement in this - and other - terrorist actions.
2) MONEY: Few are talking today about the lifeblood of terrorism: money to conduct operations. This WTC/Pentagon disaster - simple as it seems - still required many men, years of flight training, language training, housing, travel, food, expenses, communication and other expenses. There are published reports of several of these suicide pilots flashing "thick wads of cash" during their training period in Florida.
Where does all this money come from?
Some say Osama bin Laden is loaded - that he inherited $360 million from his Saudi family. But Associated Press reports that the Saudi government froze those assets in 1992.
Others have reported that rich Arab sheiks - including several who live in Arab states friendly to the U.S. - "contributed" to a "charity" run by bin Laden - and that these funds are what pays for these terrorist operations.
The U.S. government needs to intercept the money. We need to go over there and confiscate the money from anyone contributing - either knowingly or "unknowingly" - to bin Laden's "charities." This is going to anger a lot of rich people - and the Saudi government and the governments of other pro-U.S. Arab states such as Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
Perhaps these rich sheiks are paying protection money to these terrorists. Or maybe they secretly sympathize with Osama bin Laden. Whatever their motivation, we must cut off the source of money to these operatives.
3) U.S. FORCES OCCUPYING ARAB STATES: We will not win the "war against evil" if we settle for "lightning strikes" into select areas to capture a bin Laden or to wipe out a nest of suspected terrorists. (The Israelis have done this for years - and it doesn't work.) We must do much, much more.
We need to remove Saddam Hussein and his Bath Party from power in Baghdad. We - the allies including England, Canada, Japan and Jordan - then need to administer Iraq until a democratic government is elected there by the Iraqi people free of the fear and intimidation of Saddam and his henchmen.
Such an action is a huge undertaking - bigger even than the 1990-1991 Desert Shield/Desert Storm activation - but it is the only way to wipe the evil of terrorism from the earth.
Once we have cleaned out Iraq, the message to other dangerous nearby Muslim states - Syria, Iran, Lybia, Sudan - is clear: if you do not prune all terrorist organization and stop all financing from within your borders, we will come into your country and remove your government.
Again, this is the only way to win this war on terrorism.
Capturing Osama bin Laden is a good thing. We should have done it years ago.
But it is not enough.
It is a Noriega-like cosmetic solution to a much deeper and more difficult problem.
I fear the administration will not do the hard things.
It is up to all of us to support the administration - and to also pressure them to go all the way.
No president has ever been given such a blank check from Congress and such unlimited support from the American people to do what needs to be done.
This is a unique moment. Let us not squander it by doing too little.
We either do it right this time - or in the future we will face even more ghastly acts of terror.
