Eugene Robinson, the Washington Post columnist who won a Pulitzer prize in 2009 for cutting and pasting Obama campaign press releases, today explains why the war against terror is over in his column “Post-9/11 permanent state of war should have ended long ago“;
There never was a “war on terrorism.” It wasn’t “terrorism” that crashed airliners into buildings on that brilliant Tuesday morning. The attacks were carried out by a 19-member assault team from al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization then being sheltered by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. There most definitely was a war against al-Qaeda, and we won.
Within four months, U.S. invasion forces had routed the Taliban and scattered what was left of al-Qaeda to the four winds. Maybe that was the moment we should have recognized our victory. Maybe it was March 1, 2003, when Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the man most responsible for designing and orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, was captured. Or maybe it was the moment in 2004 when Afghanistan’s fledgling democracy held its first presidential election.
By the middle of the decade, we had accomplished every rational goal of the war that 9/11 began.
He goes on to trot the old “Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11” excuse. According to the belly-aching left, represented by the vacuous Robinson, the war against terror was really a war for revenge…no real strategy other than getting payback for 9/11.
So was Robinson paying attention when George W. Bush declared war against terrorists and said we wouldn’t differentiate between terrorists and the people/nations who supported them?
It wasn’t a call to war directed at solely Americans, it was a call to war for the whole world. It was an opportunity for ALL civilized nations to eradicate the vermin who murder innocent people to make a political point. It was a chance for the Spaniards to declare all-out war on the Basques, for Colombia to wipe out FARC, for the world to battle against the Tamil Tigers, the Filipino Moros, the Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan. It was a missed opportunity for the United Nations to outlaw terrorism as a political weapon.
The majority of the European countries instead wrung their hands and waved their crying towels in hopes that the US would once again do their heavy lifting so they could stay above the fray and pontificate about their purity.
The left likes to say that Bush squandered the good will we’d earned from the world on 9/11, but it was the world who squandered an opportunity to stand up to the terrorists of the world. An opportunity that may not come around again. And that’s why i can’t feel sorry for the Indias, the Spains, the Indonesias who are continually plagued with terrorist attacks because they blew their chance to end terrorism.
And linguini-spined hippies like Robinson shied away from the dirty work to be done, preferring to yap about “Bush’s War” and “chickenhawks” instead of recognizing that terrorism’s time was over. Of course, the Taliban and al Qaeda listened and fought for ten long years – ten years after they should have given up their struggle – because nimrods like Robinson gave them hope.
Al Qaeda in Iraq finally gave up when they anticipated a victory after the 2006 elections but instead faced a “surge” of US troops in spite of the hippies and Democrats’ empty words of support for terrorism. Now al Qaeda is resurgent in Afghanistan because victory is within sight, thanks to our anticipated premature withdrawal.
So, in reality, Robinson is correct, it’s time for his side to declare victory…for the terrorists. The European hand wringers and American intellectually vacant hippies, the gutless wonders, won it for them. When the next terrorist attack kills scores of Americans they can point with pride at that which they have wrought.
Amen!
None of his ilk are paying attention. They refuse to acknowledge anything that takes them away from their insipid pseudo-intellectualism. That includes reality, even when it flies into a building they happen to be standing in.
While something like that might actually sharpen their attention span, it probably does nothing to lengthen it.
Unfortunately, many in the country have decided that it’s time to bring all the troops home and go back to a 9/10/01 mentality. In today’s world, rubble can make trouble and it will be a long war whether Americans want it or not.
Dueling screeds are entertaining at least…..
So Robinson gets to be the Cronkite of his generation? [shrug]
I’ll parrot Jonn a bit: It’s seems reasonable to speculate both Iraq and A’Stan will be subsumed into some sort of Islamist Caliphate in short order once we depart and/or become irrelevant. Isn’t that clear after The Arab Spring?
That said: I’ll posit that these current wars HAVE, indeed, gone on too long.
A key aspect of my thinking is that we have NOT managed to prevent the THREAT of terrorism after investing 10 years of blood, sweat, and treasure.
This current threat is from the same source as 9/11… shouldn’t that tell us we’re going something wrong?
“Our war on terror begins with Al Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.” President George W. Bush, Speech before a Joint Session of Congress, September 20, 2001.
That statement alone rebuts Robinson’s key points. First, there was–and is–a war on terrorism. Second, Al-Qaida is one–not the only–face of terrorism. Bush saw that 10 years ago. Obama has not learned it. And Robinson flat-out denies it.
@#6 – Terrorism has existed long before our current era, and will continue long after – it’s a tactic.
And al Qa’ida isn’t the only group that uses this tactic, by far….but wouldn’t you agree that a proper response might be to spare no effort in bringing a timely – and hopefully brutal – end to the group that attacked us before going after others, or being sidetracked?
I am no expert on Al Qaida but I am guessing that its members do not wear insignia, carry photo IDs or that their membership is restricted to a certain number. So, who are they and how many are they? I dunno. For that, I have to defer entirely to the intel people whose job it is to learn that stuff. If, at the same time we are busily gathering that info and double tapping some of them, we learn about splinter groups or like-thinkers who also have designs on terrorizing the citizens of other nations, then they, too, are eligible for the same treatment. I cannot see the first this, then that approach.
Rest assured, our IC is quite adept at social networking and targeting….which is why I question the current strategy. al Qa’ida is not the main focus of our effort. The QST, HiG and Haqqani are.
This approach doesn’t come close to our goal.
Show me a foreign terrorist who wants only to practice terrorism within his own country and I’ll show you a terrorist that should not be on a US target list. But the second the SOB looks sideways at the USA, mumbles something about hurting our people, we should make him disappear. That’s about as succinctly as I can put it.
The only thing I’d add to AirCav’s sentiment is that they should disappear “in a fine red mist”.
Robison paid attention, but can not grasp the meaning.
First he writes: “There never was a “war on terrorism.” It wasn’t “terrorism” that crashed airliners into buildings on that brilliant Tuesday morning.”
Okay, not terrorism then. Terrorism was not behind 9/11.
Then, in the very next sentence he writes: “The attacks were carried out by a 19-member assault team from al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization then being sheltered by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.”
An assault team from a terrorist organization murdering thousands of human beings didn’t commit terrorism? What was it then? An ebullient marketing of Girl Scout Cookies? Can I have Samoa of that please?
You see the problem: no integrity in the argument. First he claims not-A in absolute terms. Then he undermines not-A in absolute terms.
Then he cranks up the ‘maybe’ and other squishy terms so the whole article becomes an exercise in fantasy. Robinson lacks the mental, moral, and emotional wherewithal to draw distinctions.
Every day, the USA gains more enemies and loses more friends.
Keep living in your bubble, guys.