According to the Washington Times,President Obama said Thursday
that al Qaeda is nearly
defeated and the war on terrorism has changed since he took office, and that
demands a broad rethink that includes scaling down drone attacks, transferring
detainees from Guantanamo Bay and revisiting the 2001 congressional resolution
that set the country on a perpetual war footing. Senior administration officials went further by telling
reporters that Mr. Obama wants to jettison the whole mindset that the U.S. is
still engaged in a war on terrorism.
This is downright wrong, and I hope that the Congress and the American public do not believe it, because it can be dangerous. Terrorism is like cockroaches. They can be controlled but not eliminated. Terrorism is with us ad infinitum, and we must continue to recognize it.
We have the homegrown variety, who are so dissatisfied with our society and government, that they vent their spleen on the public in general. The Oklahoma City bombing is an example.
We have the Muslim based variety, which operates on the basis of the Koran that all nonbelievers must be eliminated.
In order to control these, we must first recognize the problem. We have recognized it in the past and need to continue doing so. If we believe Pres. Obama speech and let down our guard, there is no doubt in my mind that we will have a significant increase in terrorist actions.
For control, we need constant surveillance by the FBI and the public in general to thwart any terrorist actions before they take place. This is applicable to both the homegrown variety and the Muslim based variety.
Contrary to Pres. Obama suggestion, we need continued control by satellite and personal surveillance to find locations of terrorist training camps and the leaders of terrorist organizations. The subsequent action should be then to use drones in order to dysfunction those hotbeds, at least on a temporary basis.
The matter of closing Guantánamo is mostly a political maneuver. Moving foreign combatants of the war into the public criminal system only increases costs and concentrates more on the rights of an individual. Since these people are not US citizens and have been found to be foreign combatants, they have no rights. Any attempt by Pres. Obama to ameliorate the present Guantánamo handling is merely a concession to foreign Muslim individual terrorists and terrorist groups. Congress should see to it that Guantánamo is not closed. However, we should not hold those people indefinitely. They are we war criminals and should either be prosecuted as such or returned to their native countries. A military tribunal should make that decision in each case.
With respect to "revisiting the 2001 congressional resolution that set the country on a perpetual war footing", Pres. Obama is suggesting that we let down our guard. It is obvious from the above paragraphs that this is an incorrect judgment. Neither the Congress nor the public should fall for it. This is not a conventional war of one nation against another. It is a war of one ideology against another, but with physical attributes of killing and property destruction. It will not go away. We must continue to recognize it and make appropriate preparations..
This is downright wrong, and I hope that the Congress and the American public do not believe it, because it can be dangerous. Terrorism is like cockroaches. They can be controlled but not eliminated. Terrorism is with us ad infinitum, and we must continue to recognize it.
We have the homegrown variety, who are so dissatisfied with our society and government, that they vent their spleen on the public in general. The Oklahoma City bombing is an example.
We have the Muslim based variety, which operates on the basis of the Koran that all nonbelievers must be eliminated.
In order to control these, we must first recognize the problem. We have recognized it in the past and need to continue doing so. If we believe Pres. Obama speech and let down our guard, there is no doubt in my mind that we will have a significant increase in terrorist actions.
For control, we need constant surveillance by the FBI and the public in general to thwart any terrorist actions before they take place. This is applicable to both the homegrown variety and the Muslim based variety.
Contrary to Pres. Obama suggestion, we need continued control by satellite and personal surveillance to find locations of terrorist training camps and the leaders of terrorist organizations. The subsequent action should be then to use drones in order to dysfunction those hotbeds, at least on a temporary basis.
The matter of closing Guantánamo is mostly a political maneuver. Moving foreign combatants of the war into the public criminal system only increases costs and concentrates more on the rights of an individual. Since these people are not US citizens and have been found to be foreign combatants, they have no rights. Any attempt by Pres. Obama to ameliorate the present Guantánamo handling is merely a concession to foreign Muslim individual terrorists and terrorist groups. Congress should see to it that Guantánamo is not closed. However, we should not hold those people indefinitely. They are we war criminals and should either be prosecuted as such or returned to their native countries. A military tribunal should make that decision in each case.
With respect to "revisiting the 2001 congressional resolution that set the country on a perpetual war footing", Pres. Obama is suggesting that we let down our guard. It is obvious from the above paragraphs that this is an incorrect judgment. Neither the Congress nor the public should fall for it. This is not a conventional war of one nation against another. It is a war of one ideology against another, but with physical attributes of killing and property destruction. It will not go away. We must continue to recognize it and make appropriate preparations..
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