A sea change has occurred in the conduct of the War on Terror
The War on Terror is even now being engulfed by the theatrical paradigm. On the surface, the anti-terrorism campaign seems to be going well, maintaining the same momentum it possessed during the Bush years. This September witnessed two serious busts and the long overdue termination of a leading Jihadi commander.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Denver-based Naijbullah Zazi and several others plotting to duplicate the July 2007 London transit bombings in New York City this past September 11 and a similar arrest in Dallas, in which recent immigrant Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was bagged after trying to detonate a fake bomb provided by FBI agents inside the underground garage of the Fountain Place office tower.
Not at all bad, on the face of it. On appearances alone, it seems that the terror war is going great guns, with networks being rolled up one after the other. But there exist a number of disturbing developments... [snip]
In August a U.S. court directed the release of Mohammed Jawad, captured after throwing a grenade at American soldiers in Kabul in 2002. The reason? His confession had been "coerced". (Evidently being caught throwing a grenade isn't enough anymore.) Late September saw a "new policy" in place in Afghanistan in which prisoners held at Bagram will be allowed to "challenge" their detentions before a Detainee Review Board. (They're covered by the Bill of Rights, we're told.) This summer the Justice Department, after consultations with nobody, decided to "ease restrictions" on Richard Reid, the "shoe-bomber", allowing him to spend time with other imprisoned terrorists and establish contact with people outside prison.
And now that very same Justice Department has now turned its attention to more worthy targets with Eric Holder's appointment of Connecticut prosecutor John Durham to "investigate" Bush administration anti-terror policies... [snip]
It would be bad enough if these were unrelated errors. But they are no such thing. They are the results of policy.
There has been a conscious decision, by Obama and his advisors, to abandon the firm and decisive strategy that kept this country safe for eight years. It has been replaced by an extension of Obama's foreign policy in general. And that can be expressed in a single word: appeasement...
Less than a year into his term, he's appeased the Russians, the EU, the Palestinians, the Saudis, and the Muslim world in general, taking his Cairo speech into account. (I had a line here wondering who he appeased in Denmark, but now we know. In Copenhagen Obama snuggled up to the slimiest members of the committee by stomping all over the reputation of his own country... [snip]
Despite all the wailing over excessive secrecy, this was not an issue with Bush. No president since Lincoln was more straightforward about what he was up to. We might not have known the route or the schedule (who could), but during the Bush years we damn well knew exactly where we were headed - victory. With Obama, we can't even be certain we're moving.
One thing is clear: A sea change has occurred in the conduct of the War on Terror. It's no longer a matter of combat, no longer a life and death issue, no longer even a war. It is now a Hope and Change shadow play, arranged to display the Messiah's magnanimity and saintliness.
We are at the low point now, walking though a dream world, told that we can make friends with monsters.
We have, in a real sense, failed to learn the lessons of this war, the way we learned the lessons of WW II, lessons that were later applied to the Cold War. But the Jihadis are patient teachers, and we will be given plenty of opportunities to get it right...
[Long but informative - Recommended > ]
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