It’s still a war on terror. We’re still using our military, security, and intelligence agencies to kill violent groups of people who want to kill us here at home:
‘No doubt all the respectable and enlightened people who are working so hard in the government and the media to prevent public opinion from connecting these dots and drawing the conclusion that the war on terror is still real, still global and still going on have good reasons for doing so. They fear that talking too much about the threat would hand propaganda victories to those we would call our enemies if we were calling spades spades. They also fear that whether they speak of a global war on terror, a global war on radical Islamist terror, or even a global war against fanatical religious terror groups without specifying the religion they will polarize the world and make the whatever-it-is that much worse.’
The Afpak region is still an inflamed mess, which likely requires some involvement to prevent the Taliban from gaining power again and harboring Al Qaeda more than it is now. The surge and timeline are questionable. Yemen is a few steps away from chaos, with many Al Qaeda operatives on the ground. The Iranian government is run by a violent theocracy and the Iranian State sponsors Hizbollah and other terrorist groups. We’re seeing a rise of Islamism over decades throughout the region.
Whatever your stripes, we may be in a different kind of war, but it’s still a war: asymmetrical, a war against insurgents, against people who in the name of Islam are training and targeting us here at home.
Here’s are two quotes from Henry Kissinger:
“The purpose of bureaucracy is to devise a standard operating procedure which can cope effectively with most problems. A bureaucracy is efficient if the matters which it handles routinely are, in fact, the most frequent and if its procedures are relevant to their solution. If those criteria are met, the energies of the top leadership are freed to deal creatively with the unexpected occurrence or with the need for innovation. Bureaucracy becomes an obstacle when what it defines as routine does not address the most significant range of issues or when its prescribed mode of action proves irrelevant to the problem.”
and:
“Moreover, the reputation, indeed the political survival, of most leaders depends on their ability to realize their goals, however these may have been arrived at. Whether these goals are desireable is relatively less crucial.”
Food for thought.
Related On This Site: From CSIS: ‘How the US Must Expand and Redefine International Cooperation in Fighting Terrorism’
And: Philip Bobbitt Discusses His Book ‘Terror And Consent’ On Bloggingheads
From Slate: ‘In Aleppo, Syria, Mohamed Atta Thought He Could Build The Ideal Islamic City’
Liberal Internationalism is hobbling us, and the safety of even the liberal internationalist doctrine if America doesn’t lead…Via Youtube-Uncommon Knowledge With Fouad Ajami And Charles Hill
