Winning the War on Terror

Six steps to victory.

Start a dramatic program to reduce US dependence on foreign oil (and establish US leadership in alternatives). 

Way too much oil money ends up directly supporting terrorists or running schools for future terrorists or supporting absurd monarchies in countries which spawn terrorists.  There are so many good reasons to take this step no matter what your political persuasion that it is amazing that neither political party has done anything but posture. 

However, since the immediate goal is to reduce funding for terrorists, the means do include drilling where we can in Alaska and off all our own coasts as well as developing alternatives which do include nuclear energy as well as wind, biomass, solar, conservation (see tomorrow’s post), etc.

End the war on drugs. 

We aren’t going to “win” this one.  Attempts to keep drugs illegal just drive up drug prices and profits for the drug trade.  Terrorists and drug cartels are natural allies.  In Afghanistan, support for the poppy trade is a crucial part of the Taliban resurgence.  Make opium legal and the price goes down and the growers don’t need to pay protection money to the Taliban and will hopefully cooperate in hunting them down.

Moreover, the war on drugs squanders border control people and money, military assets, and huge amounts of domestic police power much better used in the war on terror.

Partition and leave Iraq.

Time’s up.  I’m still not at all sorry Saddam was toppled.  I still remember that he did not allow the UN inspections required to assure that he did not have WMD.  That was his mistake and not ours.  But creating a democracy in Iraq is a job for Iraqis.  Like the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, the only chance for peace is separation of people who can’t live together. The dislocation will be terrible but not as bad as the continuing carnage.  Moreover, growing opposition in the US to our presence there emboldens other rogue nations who think we won’t get involved anywhere else ever again no matter what the provocation.

Take effective action to topple the regime in North Korea.

The most dangerous illusion in the world is that joining the nuclear club puts a country beyond restraint.  Now look what madman has that illusion.  And we know the Iranians and others are watching.  There are some signs that even China may be concerned enough to be cooperative. But, at the extreme and if necessary, the US should act alone but without putting soldiers on the ground or thinking that we can make North Korea into a democracy.  That country is already a wreck.  When it is put back together, it will be by the North Koreans themselves with the help, perhaps, of the Chinese, South Koreans and maybe even Japan.

Depolarize our domestic debate on civil liberties.

This debate is much too important for the name-calling it’s degenerated into.  It is certainly true that, during other wars, civil liberties were abridged and then restored.  Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War.   Roosevelt interred Japanese-Americans.  But it is also true that these wars were declared and had a clear beginning and end.  The war on terror is amorphous; how do we know when it’s over? For how long do we accept the loss of how much civil liberty?  What are the rules for interrogating someone who may know where the next terror attack is going to happen?  What is a prisoner of war?  I don’t begin to know the answers other than we need a much more honest debate from both sides.  The world has changed and we have to recognize that and adapt to it.

Rename the war on terror.

North Korea aside (if it were the world’s only problem, it would be easily solved) we are at war, much of the world is at war, with Islamic fascists. In fact, no one suffers from radical Islam more than Moslems.  There is no point in being politically correct and not recognizing our enemy. 

Comments

[401k help]

So are you arguing that drugs, all drugs, should be legalized? I think I might agree about certain ones that could not only help the economy and put an end to a lot of issues, but ALL drugs? Seems pretty out there.

[Anon E. Mous]

Tom gives a couple of good options. How about a couple more:

1. Stop blindly supporting Israel in the mideast. This leads to huge animosity against us. I know that people have serious emotions around this and feel that we have "tried" to be an honest broker only to be backstabbed by the Palestianians, however the answer to having failed a couple of times is not ditch the rules and switch to the other side. The Israel Hezbollah war shows the futility of force.

2. Stop acting like a schoolyard bully. American "exceptionalism" makes a lot of the world want to puke. They don't worship our flag as we seem to and they see us as a scary, martial, prejudiced blowhard. This creates passive symnpathy with people who would do us harm. A lot of Europeans love it when we're taken down a peg or three. Most Americans would be shocked to know that at least a billion people view us as sadistic, violent, money-hungry killers. Unless we're ready to do away with a billion humans, we'd better start to listen and build bridges.

3. Stop being hypocrites. We bleat about UN resolutions but when our pals (Israel) violate them, we're happy to give the world our middle finger. Either we believe in the UN or we don't. If we hate the world so much, let's just withdraw from the UN and use force to settle disputes. Another area where our hypocricy is legion is our blatant support of dictators while shouting hoarse about democracy. Clearly we support Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Kuwait, Oman and a whole passel of other assorted nasties. Let's just stop lecturing the world about democracy when it's bloody obvious that we actually don't really want it when it doesn't suit us (read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed_Mossadegh). If we really wanted democracy perhaps we should have used the same persuasion on the Kuwaitis as we did in Iraq. Everyone sees thru our mendacity: the war in Iraq was just a ploy to scare 14th centrury Arabs into submitting to 21st century capitalism and creating a new Singapore in the mideast. Clearly it seems that the 14th century is winning.

3. I love the war on drugs comment. 100% agree. All we are doing is raising the world prices of narcotics which indirectly benefits the Taliban.

4. Stop invading other countries if you don't know how to win. This more than anything else convinces terrorist maniacs that they need to attack us before we come a knocking. When you cannot solidly and convincingly destroy an enemy in FINITE time, best not attack. See the fall of Saigon if you don't believe this. At the moment all our presence in Iraq is achieving is the mass-scale recruitment of angry young arab men who see us (correctly) as invaders bent on imposing our will on them.

5. Stop the war on terror. Quit the paranoia and fear culture inside our country. A prisoner of war is a prisoner of war. What terrorists are is CRIMINALS not warriors. They WANT to be noble warriors. Let's not give them that level of attention and respect. The war on terror is unwinnable just as the war on drugs is unwinnable. There will always be lunactics willing to blow themselves up to make a point. History teaches us that these people (ref: the anarchists, the IRA, the Red Brigades, Aum Shinrikyo etc.) have to be waited out. Their fire tends to die down naturally. Let's stop fanning the flames. If you feel like acting do what works: old fashioned police and detective work. Gitmo has not yielded any terrorists to my knowledge but good old gumshoe work in/around the Pakistani community in the UK foiled the latest bomb plot. The whole "war" thing is a crock.

[Mark]

Should we add to that list doing anything about our borrowing habits with China that negatively impacts our ability to persuade them to help us with North Korea and other issues?

[Nathan]

Taking on the easy problems, are you? ;-)

[Will]

Tom,

As always, insightful, accurate and well-stated.

Your first point, as you explain, is the most impactful and obvious. It appears to be beyond my ability to understand why more, even incremental, steps aren't made on this. So many seem obvious to me.

On North Korea, the US clearly has to take the lead. I'd certainly like the US to be taking the lead in getting China and Japan to take more ownership instead of towing the line all by ourselves. Let's face it, even the US would be acting a lot differently if a nut with a nuclear bomb was so close to us that they could fire it into the country with a slingshot.

Your last point, of course, is pretty hairy. Since we are at war with a small percentage of the world's Muslim population, tagging it appropriately yet accurately is difficult. I agree, though, the war on "terror" is not specific enough - I don't know how to refine it further.

Thanks for your thoughtful posts.