Let's Fight to Win!
According to today's screaming headline in the New York Post, even Obama connected the dots. Fanatics are out to kill us. And they draw their inspiration from Islam, at least that crazy brand of Islam that the Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the ruling clique in Saudi Arabia adhere to. Better a year late than never, I guess. A fanatic Muslim two weeks ago tried to detonate a bomb smuggled in his underwear aboard a plane about to land in Detroit. Only a lucky combination of a malfunction in the bomb and some quick action by heroic passengers saved the plane. The President's clueless Homeland Security chief crowed that the system worked. Sure. The man was on a watch list for potential terrorists. His own father had informed the American embassy in his native Nigeria that he was radicalized and bore watching. He was traveling alone on a transatlantic flight, with no luggage, with a one-way ticket paid for in cash, and nobody was suspicious. He was allowed onto the plane without so much as a search. And the solutions bandied about? Full body scanners and such. This when a lady with a titanium rod in her hip didn't even trip the metal detectors, and neither did a reporter with a titanium chain openly displayed on her person.
Our enemies are nothing if not patient, persistent and clever. We will not win this war by playing defense. We have to get on the attack, and do a few things that are politically incorrect but might get the job done. As usual, the Post's columnist Ralph Peters is right on the money. Our self-imposed rules of engagement in Afghanistan are playing into the hands of our enemies. We have to give our commanders the authority to call in air strikes even if the Taliban's human shields will come to harm. We should do whatever we must to extract information from captured terrorists, never mind Geneva Conventions (they're for uniformed soldiers in a regular army), never mind Constitutional rights (they're for American citizens). We won World War 2 because we were willing to kill numerous German and Japanes civilians in the process. If that war had been fought by Obama's lawyers, the bad guys would have won and we would not be here. Our boys' lives are worth more than those of the enemy. That is the brutal calculus of war, and if you don't have the stomach for it then you shouldn't be President, you shouldn't be in charge of internal security, and you shouldn't watch the television news.
And now for Pakistan. It's an open secret that elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence communities are in league with our enemies. So let's stop coddling them. If we have to go into Pakistan to pursue the Taliban, then do it and never mind tipping off their government so it can tip off the people being pursued. And Saudi Arabia. It's an open secret that they build madrassas all over the Muslim world to export their perverted religion and mold fresh terrorists to die for Allah. Stop coddling them. Either they stop bankrolling terrorists or we send in the Marines to take over the oil wells and bring about regime change we can believe in.
And back to airport security. It is clear that focusing only on what is taken on an aircraft will not keep us safe. At least as important is who gets aboard the plane. It's not about racial profiling. The "shoe bomber," Richard Reid, was a Briton with a Western physical appearance and a British name. The Christmas bomber did have a Muslim name (Muslims come in all shapes, sizes and colors), but was not Middle Eastern and did not have a Middle Eastern skin tone. Racial profiling would not have caught either. It's about people profiling. The Israelis got it right. If you exhibit a certain pattern of behavior (the Israelis rightly do not divulge the whole pattern), then you arouse suspicion, are taken out of line for a private search. Ben-Gurion airport is among the world's safest. Their system would not have allowed Mr. Abdulmutallab to board the plane. As another Post columnist wrote, it's time to take a page out of their book.
It's time to go on offense. Throw our weight around, kill the bad guys and never mind the assorted leftists, liberals and terror apologists crying foul.
Our enemies are nothing if not patient, persistent and clever. We will not win this war by playing defense. We have to get on the attack, and do a few things that are politically incorrect but might get the job done. As usual, the Post's columnist Ralph Peters is right on the money. Our self-imposed rules of engagement in Afghanistan are playing into the hands of our enemies. We have to give our commanders the authority to call in air strikes even if the Taliban's human shields will come to harm. We should do whatever we must to extract information from captured terrorists, never mind Geneva Conventions (they're for uniformed soldiers in a regular army), never mind Constitutional rights (they're for American citizens). We won World War 2 because we were willing to kill numerous German and Japanes civilians in the process. If that war had been fought by Obama's lawyers, the bad guys would have won and we would not be here. Our boys' lives are worth more than those of the enemy. That is the brutal calculus of war, and if you don't have the stomach for it then you shouldn't be President, you shouldn't be in charge of internal security, and you shouldn't watch the television news.
And now for Pakistan. It's an open secret that elements of Pakistan's military and intelligence communities are in league with our enemies. So let's stop coddling them. If we have to go into Pakistan to pursue the Taliban, then do it and never mind tipping off their government so it can tip off the people being pursued. And Saudi Arabia. It's an open secret that they build madrassas all over the Muslim world to export their perverted religion and mold fresh terrorists to die for Allah. Stop coddling them. Either they stop bankrolling terrorists or we send in the Marines to take over the oil wells and bring about regime change we can believe in.
And back to airport security. It is clear that focusing only on what is taken on an aircraft will not keep us safe. At least as important is who gets aboard the plane. It's not about racial profiling. The "shoe bomber," Richard Reid, was a Briton with a Western physical appearance and a British name. The Christmas bomber did have a Muslim name (Muslims come in all shapes, sizes and colors), but was not Middle Eastern and did not have a Middle Eastern skin tone. Racial profiling would not have caught either. It's about people profiling. The Israelis got it right. If you exhibit a certain pattern of behavior (the Israelis rightly do not divulge the whole pattern), then you arouse suspicion, are taken out of line for a private search. Ben-Gurion airport is among the world's safest. Their system would not have allowed Mr. Abdulmutallab to board the plane. As another Post columnist wrote, it's time to take a page out of their book.
It's time to go on offense. Throw our weight around, kill the bad guys and never mind the assorted leftists, liberals and terror apologists crying foul.
posted by Zev Stern at 2:28 PM
1 Comments:
Amen!
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