Soft on Terror

Ralph Peters notes just how the media has not only given Sen. Barack Obama a pass on his national security statements relating to the war on terror, but that Obama's statements are stunningly naive.

In fact, I think Peters is pulling his punches here. Obama is not only calling for a return to the law enforcement model that was such a stunning failure in the 1990s, but he thinks that the current war on terror has made the US less safe despite the fact that there haven't been any attacks on the US homeland since 9/11.

The law enforcement model is good for what it does. It brings to justice those that have already committed crimes. Obama points out that the perpetrators from the 1993 WTC bombing were brought to justice. That wasn't entirely true - several did manage to evade arrest or capture, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef until years later, and not before they attempted or carried out still other mass casualty attacks.

To defeat terrorists, you need to do more than just wait until the terrorists carry out the attacks and then use forensics to determine who carried them out after pulling the bodies from the rubble.

You need to use all the national security means at your disposal. That means using covert intelligence operations and military operations to attack the terrorists wherever they are operation. It means not relying on law enforcement to prevent attacks because law enforcement works best to apprehend terrorists after the attacks have been carried out.

That's why the US remains in Iraq and why the US engages in air strike operations in places like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere in the world. That's where the terrorists of al Qaeda have operated from and continue to operate. Afghanistan is an ongoing problem, which is why the US remains engaged there as well. Abandoning Iraq as Obama has proposed in the past would cede that country to terrorists and those that wish to do harm to the US, our strategic interests, and those of our allies in the region and beyond.

By fighting al Qaeda and degrading their capabilities and leadership, you put them at a disadvantage since they have to spend more time evading detection, capture, and death, rather than plotting more attacks.