Return to Bush doctrine needed that U.S. fight is against terrorists and countries that harbor them
WASHINGTON, D.C. –President Bush was right. There. We said it and we’ll say it again. President Bush was right that the war in which the West is engaged is the war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them.
President Bush’s formulation was a sea change from the Clinton Administration’s law-enforcement approach that worked to apprehend people and understand the process after the fact. The Bush formulation was also rejected by President Obama, whose Homeland Security secretary’s first instinct after the Christmas day airline bombing attempt was to say that “after the incident” the system worked vey well. OK, Secretary Janet Napolitano recanted, but still, she is the one who brought you “man caused contingencies” because she couldn’t bring herself to say “terrorism.”
President Obama remains focused on stopping individuals who “break the law.” He has asked for a review of the “terrorism watch list” containing the names and aliases of some half a million persons.
A notably liberal columnist in The Washington Post wrote that, “Our enemy apparently sees its future in places such as Yemen-or perhaps Somalia, a failed state for almost two decades…The enemy’s leadership is believed to be ensconced in remote areas of Pakistan…yet the United States will soon have about 100,000 troops chasing its shadows in Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda’s presence is now minimal.”
But the liberal columnist couldn’t connect the dots – a common failure among those who don’t choose to understand. The connection is that states that do not control their territory and states that hate the West are places that terrorists find haven, money, training, passports and airline flights. Iran, Syria and the Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza do it on purpose. Pakistan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Lebanon don’t control their territory entirely – and maybe don’t want to.
The liberal columnist didn’t say it, maybe didn’t understand it, and surely wasn’t about to give credit where it was due.
Al Qaeda was in Afghanistan before, but it left when the United States toppled the Taliban that gave it sanctuary. Al Qaeda was in Iraq, but it left when the United States deposed Saddam and helped the Iraqis build a governmental structure that controls all the parts of the country – without rape rooms and mass graves. The United States has been helping Yemen dispose of the al Qaeda presence that lives in the areas that are relatively remote and ungoverned. According to American military sources in Iraq, Syria has become a haven for al-Qaeda.
This is not a plea to invade any additional countries, but to understand the sources of the problem and determine which countries can deal with it themselves, which ones we need to help and which are-determinedly-our enemies and need to be dealt with as such.
Stripping airline passengers is the last stage of failing to address the problem. Looking for one individual in the terrorism watch list database and thinking you can stop him (or her) is ridiculous. We are lucky in the extreme that brave and vigilant people sometimes pop up to stop individuals committing or trying to commit acts of terrorism. We are lucky in the extreme that parents are beginning to come forward to express concerns about their own children. But we will never stop all the individuals who seek to do us harm.
That is what the Israelis understood when they went into the West Bank in 2002 to wipe out the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure and reclaim control of the territory from which terrorism came to Israel during the so-called “second intifada.” That is what the security fence and checkpoints do. That is what the Israelis understood when they launched Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in Gaza one year ago.
They couldn’t stop all the individuals; they had to control the space.
That is what President Bush understood. And he was right.
*
Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.
Leave a comment Cancel reply
Recent Posts
- Please go to www.sdjewishworld.com
- Now we’re at www.sdjewishworld.com — come and see!
- Oren pleads for Jewish support for peace
- Maybe not ‘anti-Semitic,’ perhaps Time is ‘anti-semantic’
- Despite flaws, ‘Prodigal Sons’ well worth reading
- Ending settlement freeze teaches Palestinians they can’t get something for nothing
- Possible spy deal and computer malware add intrigue to international scene
- What’s green and rocks? The Shabbat planned by Beth Am
- On Stephen Hawking, genius and music
- Palestinians should realize Israel willing to withdraw for peace, settlements or none
- For Mideast plants, it’s dew or die
- New software may help physicians repair your RNA’s
- However well meaning, Obama has blundered in Middle East
- New bill introduced to penalize bias against students from religious ethnic groups
- The Jews Down Under~Roundup of Australian Jewish News
- La Jolla Playhouse basks in Chaplin’s ‘Limelight’
- J Street leader responds to financing disclosures in Washington Times
- Dissecting President Obama’s U.N. speech
- Actor Richard Dreyfuss headlines Oct. 9 county library book festival
- Jewish community well represented in local ‘Star’ awards
- Tense times on front lines of Jerusalem neighborhoods
- Two IDF soldiers to tour San Diego schools Oct. 6
- ‘MiXtape’ and ‘The Full Monty’ enliven local theatre scene
- Commentary: USC campus police abet anti-Israel propagandists
- Obama to U.N.: Israel’s existence not a matter for debate
Archives
Pages
Categories
- 1954~Rosh Hashanah
- Aaron Elias
- Abbe Wolfsheimer Stutz
- Abu Dhabi
- Adam Schiff
- Adventures in SD History
- Afghanistan
- Airlines
- Albania
- Alex Liff
- Algeria
- Allyson Schwartz
- Antartica
- Anthony Weiner
- Anti-Semitism
- Arab League
- Argentina
- Arlen Specter
- Armenia
- Arnold Flick
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladeh
- Barbados
- Barbara Boxer
- Barbara Kay
- Barney Frank
- Barry Rubin
- Baseball
- basketball
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Benjamin Cardin
- Bermuda
- Biking
- Bob Filner
- Bodybuilding
- Bolivia
- Bonnie Dumanis
- Books
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Botswana
- Boxing
- Brad Sherman
- Brazil
- Britain
- Bruce F. Lowitt
- Bruce Kesler
- Bruce S. Ticker
- Bulgaria
- Burma
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Canary Islands
- Carine Chitayat
- Carl Levin
- Carol Ann Goldstein
- Carol Davis
- Cayman Islands
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chanukah
- Charles Schumer
- Chile
- China
- Claire Gold
- Colombia
- comedy
- Community Greetings
- Congo
- Costa Rica
- Countries
- cricket
- Croatia
- Cruise Lines
- Cuba
- Curacao
- Cynthia Citron
- Cynthia Weisfield
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Czecheslovakia (historical)
- Dan Schaffer
- Dance
- Danny Bloom
- Darrell Steinberg
- David Amos
- David Strom
- Delta
- Denmark
- Dianne Feinstein
- Donald H. Harrison
- Dorothea Shefer-Vanson
- Dubai
- Ecuador
- Ed Koch
- Eddie Rosenberg
- Egypt
- Eileen Wingard
- El Al
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eric Cantor
- Eritrea
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- European Union
- Finland
- First Amendment~Religion
- Football
- France
- Frank Lautenberg
- Franklin Gaylis
- Fred Reiss
- G8
- Gail Feinstein Forman
- Gail Umeham
- Garry Fabian
- Gary Ackerman
- Gary Rotto
- Gaza
- Georgia {Gruziya}
- Germany
- Gerry Greber
- Gert Thaler
- Ghana
- golf
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Hal Wingard
- Henry Waxman
- historic places
- Hockey
- Holland America
- Holocaust~Shoah
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- Howard Berman
- Howard Wayne
- Hungary
- Iceland
- India
- Indonesia
- Interfaith
- Ira Ruskin
- Ira Sharkansky
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Irv Justman
- Isaac Yetiv
- Israel
- Italy
- Ivory Coast
- J. Zel Lurie
- Jack Forman
- Jack Markell
- Jamaica
- Jan Schakowsky
- Janis Colton
- Japan
- Jared Polis
- Jay N. Jacobson
- Jay Tell
- Jeanette Friedman
- Jeanette Katzir
- Jerrold Nadler
- Jewish license plates
- Jewish Public Officials
- Joel A. Moskowitz
- Joellyn Zollman
- Joey Seymour
- John Adler
- John Yarmuth
- Jordan
- Joseph Lieberman
- Judaism
- Judy Lash Balint
- Kashif Shahzada
- Kathi Diamant
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- kick boxing
- Kuwait
- Kyrgystan
- Lag B'Omer
- Latvia
- Laurel Corona
- Lebanon
- Liberia
- Libya
- Lifestyles
- Linda Capeloto Sendowski
- Lithuania
- Lloyd Levy
- Lorne Mallin
- Luxembourg
- Lynne Thrope
- Macedonia
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mali
- Marc Yaffe
- Marissa Palin
- Marquesas Islands
- Marshall Islands
- Marti Emerald
- Marty Block
- Mauritania
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Michael Bloomberg
- Micronesia
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Morris Casuto
- Movies
- Music
- Myanmar/Burma
- Natasha Josefowitz
- Nauru
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Nigeria
- Nita Lowey
- Norman Greene
- Norman Manson
- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
- North Korea
- Norway
- obituaries
- Oman
- Opera
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
- Organization of American States (OAS)
- Our Writers
- Pakistan
- Palau
- Palestinian Authority
- Panama
- Paul Greenberg
- Peru
- Pesach
- Peter Eisner
- Philippines
- Poetry
- Poland
- Portugal
- Puerto Rico (US territory)
- Purim
- Qatar
- Quartet (for Mideast Peace)
- R-e-s-p-e-c-t
- Rabbi Baruch Lederman
- Rabbi Ben Kamin
- Rabbi Dow Marmur
- Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
- Rabbi Philip Graubart
- Rabbi Simcha Weinstein
- Rabbi William N. Kramer
- Randy Fadem
- Recipes
- Recommended reading and viewing
- Rhodesia-historical
- Richard C. Holbrooke
- Robert Wilson
- Romania
- Ron Wyden
- Rosh Hashanah
- Roz Rothstein
- Rugby
- Running
- Russell Feingold
- Russia
- Rwanda
- Sammy Samuels
- San Diego
- San Diego history
- Sander Levin
- Sara Appel-Lennon
- Saudi Arabia
- Science
- Senegal
- Serbia
- Shavuot
- Sheila Orysiek
- Sheldon Silver
- Shelley Berkley
- Shonda file
- Shoshana Bryen
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Soccer
- Solomon Islands
- Somalia
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Soviet Union (historical)
- Spain
- Sports
- Sri Lanka
- Steve Cohen
- Steve Hofstetter
- Steve Israel
- Steve Kagen
- Steve Poizner
- Steve Rothman
- Sudan
- Sukkot
- Surfing
- Susan Davis
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikstan
- Tanzania
- Tashlich (part of Rosh Hashanah)
- Ted Parker
- television
- Tennis
- terror
- Thailand
- The Arts
- Theatre
- Tibet
- Tisha B'Av
- Toby Klein Greenwald
- Tonga
- Travel
- Tu B'Shevat
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Tuvulu
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- Ulla Hadar
- Uncategorized
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- United Nations
- United States of America
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vatican City
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Virgin Islands (U.S. territory)
- Visual Arts
- water polo
- West Bank
- Yachting
- Yemen
- Yiftach Levy
- Yom Ha'atzma'ut
- Yom HaShoah
- Yom HaZikaron
- Yom Kippur
- Yom Yerushalayim
- Yonatan Peres
- Yosef Rabin
- Yugoslavia (historic)
- Yvonne Greenberg
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
We must not forget that September 11, 2001 happenend on President Bush’s watch. We must not forget that President Bush and VP Cheney refused to testify under oath and publicly before the commission that investigated the 9/11/2001 attacks; Bush and Cheney testified secretly and not under oath as they demanded. We must not forget that there was no investigation of who was responsible for the 9/11/2001 attacks; everyone on the planes was killed and it was assumed that the 11 Middle Eastern Muslim men on the passenger manifests were guilty of the attacks – it was not that long ago that the appearance of Jewish names on a passenger manifest would have been deemed them guilty of whatever crime happened.
It was President Bush and his cabinet who decided to reduce the effort in Afghanistan and start a war in Iraq. One must examine US foreign policy since WWII in the Middle East, and European colonialism in Asia, Africa and the Middle East as the roots of the current terrorism around the world.
Hogwash. The moment you focus on “the roots” of terrorism, you have accepted it. It is as unacceptable as genocide and must be fought and rejected at every opportunity, without trying to “understand” it. It is the method chosen by people who would rather play dirty and use innocent people as hostages rather than concede defeat. It is morally repugnant, not to mention physically devastating for its victims.
Yes, yes, and yes.