Progress In The War On Terror?
November 29th, 2007 by Joe Ciccanti1. We’ve heard many times how our troops have been fighting Al-Qaeda over in Iraq so that we don’t have to fight Al-Qaeda here. This is a good strategy, except how do we know Al-Qaeda terrorists, suicide bombers and sleeper cells aren’t already in the United States? The border situation has me wondering.
2. I’ve also heard it said: “There hasn’t been any major terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11.” That’s true, but how do we know something as bad and even bigger isn’t currently in the planning stages? There were several years between the two World Trade Center attacks. President Bush’s Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend was one of the ones who had mentioned how America has been free of major attacks since 9/11, and also stated that Osama Bin Laden is ”a man on the run in a cave who is virtually impotent.” Well, he could be more than impotent—he could be dead. But does that mean the threat is gone and that his followers will all of a sudden stop trying to carry out attacks?
3. We’ve heard about the decline in violence in Iraq, but could part of the reason be that the terrorists are regrouping? It was reported back at the end of August that Radical Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr ordered his dreaded militia to stop attacks on US-led forces as part of a six-month suspension of the militant group’s activities. “I direct the Mahdi Army to suspend all its activities for six months until it is restructured in a way that helps honour the principles for which it is formed,†Sadr said in a statement issued by his office in the city of Najaf. The AFP reports that in December last year, the Pentagon identified the militia as the biggest threat to stability in the war-ravaged country, even ahead of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the local affiliate of Osama bin Laden’s network.
4. While going on the offensive in Iraq may have put a dent in Al-Qaeda, what about Afghanistan in the Tora Bora region and the area in Pakistan, where they believe Bin Laden is hiding out? Shouldn’t there have been more of a focus on these areas?
5. Even if we wiped out every terrorist and every terrorist cell, does that mean all the evildoers are gone? As long as there are evil ideologies, radical Islam, and violent radicalization, it is likely that new ones will pop up.
I’m sure this all sounds rather pessimistic, but what is really going on here? Lastly Senator Joe Biden this week told New Hampshire voters that they have the Bush Administration to thank for the rising costs of oil. Biden called the temporary increase of troops in Iraq a “fantasy” saying that there is no evidence that it’s working. As reported from the Associated Press and as posted in WGMD News, Biden says the uncertainty in Iraq and Iran are adding an extra 30 dollars a barrel. I heard this week that global warming is being blamed for everything. It sounds like the Iraq war is also getting blamed for a lot of things that have gone wrong.
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November 29th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
>Even if we wiped out every terrorist and every terrorist cell, does that mean all the evildoers are gone? As long as there are evil ideologies, radical Islam, and violent radicalization, it is likely that new ones will pop up.
November 30th, 2007 at 2:08 am
First off, you can’t listen to Biden. He is the laughing stock of the United States except for one state. That state is Delaware. I think we are the only state that still listens to the hot air that blows out of his mouth. Even democrats laugh at him. So we can throw that out.
Secondly, we can’t really guarantee there aren’t any terrorist already here. I am sure they are since our borders are very lax and not one politician wants to get on the ball and fix that. However, there hasn’t been a terrorist attack since 9/11 and we have foiled big terrorist plots in the US and across the world since then. We just have to make sure we don’t get relaxed because that is when they will strike. I was reading an article stating that another terrorist attack on our soil would do us good. Here is the article:
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/stu_bykofsky/20070809_Stu_Bykofsky___To_save_America__we_need_another_9_11.html
It is a debatable article in many means but he brings up good points especially that 9/11 brought unity within our country. You better bet that unity struck fear in the terrorist hearts because when our country unites like that, we are pretty much indestructible. Right now our country needs unity and the Iraq has now brought that unity to an end whether you agree with it or not. The politicians got on the ball and declared war against terror after 9/11. They funded the war. They got on the FBI and all securities in the US to get off their heels to never let this happen again and so on. We need the politicians to unite now to deal with immigration, spending, education, healthcare, social security, etc. Nothing has been accomplished since the whole “I now don’t back the war in Iraq even though I funded it because GW fooled me into it.” It’s just a constant back and forth bickering like little children and nothing gets done. So is another terrorist attack to unite us so we can get things accomplished such a bad thing to say? That’s for you to decide.
As for Bin Laden, the world is huge and he was always one step ahead of us. I blame the media for this. If you can remember back, if you watched the news you knew where the military was going to bomb next. They also told you where the troops were at and heading. All Bin laden had to do is watch CNN. As of now our troops aren’t allowed in Pakistan and Pakistan doesn’t have any interest in pinning Bin Laden even though they say they do. We want him way more than they do. However, since Bin Laden was always one step in front of us, he could be anywhere in world by now.
Lastly, terrorist could be regrouping and getting more weapons from Iran or elsewhere. They need to also secure Iraq’s borders so the terrorist already in Iraq don’t have the resources to fight anymore. You have to squeeze them like a snake and cut off all ways to get weapons, ammo, and reinforcements into the country. You can to look to Hezbollah as a great example. They picked on Israel and then got shelled. They spin the war using the media to end the war and make them look like the good guys. Now they have time to regroup and the Lebanese military now claims Hezbollah has bought sophisticate weapons after the little skirmish. Many claim these weapons came from Iran but as for now we can’t say that for sure. We just know private religious organizations give around 200 million dollars to them a year. Now with Iran becoming an up and coming nuke power we need to be careful that Hezbollah doesn’t get their hands on a nuke. Therefore, Hezbollah causes trouble, gets out, stays low, builds its military, and then will probably attack in the future. This could be a similar tactic we see from the terrorist in Iraq. That’s why we need to cut them off and I don’t think that is being done and it’s hard to unless you have a huge army to implement a snake like strategy in Iraq since it’s a big country with two countries that are considered terrorist.
December 1st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Yes Fabio, I agree with you. Only by electing Cheney and Rumsfeld in 08 will we win the war on terror. We need higher gas prices!(I wonder what deal Cheney and the oil companies cooked up when coming up with an energy policy?) We need to entirely privatize our military because corporations can run it so much better and profitably(?). I remember when my health insurance policy was with a not for profit company.(Blue Cross) Wasn’t that a stupid idea! It’s a much better idea that 30 cents of every dollar spent on health care goes to insurance companies! And that Biden! If it wasn’t for him Bork would have been on the Supreme Court and Bork would have figured out the constitution contains nothing about rights. Instead we’ve had to give them up little by little(how did Hitler become a dictator?).