Obama Seems Lost in the 'War on Terror'

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/175709/obama-seems-lost-war-terror#axzz2bqddiFuC


A fully armed MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle taxis down the runway at an air base in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/US Air Force, Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson)

It ought to be pretty clear that President Obama doesn’t have the slightest clue about what to do about terrorism and radical Islam.

How else to explain why the United States, after saying that Al Qaeda is pretty much dead and buried, closed nearly twenty embassies around the world last week after US intelligence agencies intercepted a single message from the leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in Pakistan to the leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen? And then, making things worse, the United States unleashed an unprecedented barrage of terrorist-creating drone strikes against targets in Yemen? And, finally, with allied branches of Al Qaeda in both Syria and Iraq, the United States is offering to help Iraq’s government battle the group—which is setting off waves of suicide bombs that kill hundreds—while, at the same time, supporting the same Al Qaeda group in Syria?

The New York Times, in reporting on the Yemen drone strikes—which, it notes, in the past have “set off a major public backlash against the United States”—points out that the strikes have been targeting mid-level radicals, not its leaders and not necessarily anyone plotting any attacks against US targets:

Senior American intelligence officials said last week that none of the about three dozen militants killed so far in the drone strikes were “household names,” meaning top-tier leaders of the affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. But the American official said the strikes had targeted “rising stars” in the Yemen network, people who were more likely to be moving around and vulnerable to attack. “They may not be big names now,” the official said, “but these were the guys that would have been future leaders.”

[JaneyVee]

1. The author can't understand how AQ could have been weakened but still pose a threat

To western interests overseas? This country, particularly the media have a major problem with seeing the entire world in black and white. Reality has much more gray scale.

[djean111]

2. “They may not be big names now,” the official said, “but these were the guys that would have been

future leaders.”
So - we are pretty much officially in Minority Report land?
How soon does this type of mission creep tiptoe into domestic lives?
Mention pot too many times, get a nice visit from the DEA.

[Skidmore]

3. It's not that simplistic either.

AQ and their wannabes have the patience to wait out any system the West devises because jihad is at once a long game and a short game for the fundamentalist. We see the echoes of a less violent religious zealotry around grievances here with the zealots among fundamentalist Christians organized originally under the Moral Majority umbrella several decades ago. They are still at war too. How do you fight zealotry, especially when it adopts terrorism as a means to the end? Perhaps you could tell us what you would bring to bear in such a match up that would be somewhere between doing nothing and world conflagration based on holy war, because believe me, we also have fundamentalists of Christian and Jewish stripes who would love nothing more than a full on war over whose theology got it right.

Wars of ideology are infinitely more complicated than wars over land.

[marmar]

4. k/r

[BeyondGeography]

5. The author seems lost...Obama is playing offense

Maybe we should send guitarmies over bearing unity songs as a deterrent. Of course, many here don't even accept the need for counter-terrorism. They're wrong.

[Harmony Blue]

6. Good article

Obama administration's stance has been scattershot lately.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

7. Everything is going according to plan.

Permanent WAR

[1-Old-Man]

8. Maybe they are killing mid-level people because they've already killed all the Number 2's.

They've killed Number 2's by the hundreds, not its time to move down to number 3's.

[Coyotl]

9. So now the assassination target lists include future political enemies?

[progressoid]

10. We won't win the war on terra until we kill the children of potential terrorists.

Apparently.

[Coyotl]

12. We won't win the war on political enemies until we quit making political enemies!

That is rule one of human behavior, don't make enemies. Unfortunately, Darwinism has also taught us that those who kill others have a better chance of producing viable offspring than those killed. Killing could thereby become a evolutionarily favored trait, mitigated, of course, by opposite tendencies having greater survival advantage.

To reiterate without diverging so afield, be nice so terrorist are not created by your own actions.

[Jesus Malverde]

17. The idea is that you kill the true activists, all the while your informants are rising

through the ranks, soon to run the organization itself. It's an old technique, whats new is an almost sentient automated murder machine to carry it out.

[Safetykitten]

11. He seems pretty lost in all areas, except making Wall Street happy.

[RC]

13. Who are the real terrorists?

But the American official said the strikes had targeted “rising stars” in the Yemen network, people who were more likely to be moving around and vulnerable to attack. “They may not be big names now,” the official said, “but these were the guys that would have been future leaders.”

Translation: They are dead, so they are either, maybe terrorist or possibly future terrorists.

There is no way to be sure except to kill them. Dead, they are either terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.
Never mind, how we are killing them fits all the definitions of terrorism. Death from the skies, anytime of the day or night, with no way to defend against the drones.

[Coyotl]

20. Oh, there is a way to fight the drones

You have to attack the homeland! That is the problem they are trying to solve. Seems like a chicken and an egg and a chicken and an egg .....

[RC]

22. Cheep tourist flights from Yemen to US or wherever, you know, like loss leader flights to

Vegas or Disneyland.

That should give our overlords the excuse they need to use drones on neighborhoods possibly near you and me. Would keep the war going for decades. Nobody on the cut rate flights? Nobody has to know, so no problem.

[Jesus Malverde]

14. "while, at the same time, supporting the same Al Qaeda group in Syria? "

And using this same group as an excuse to put their hands down my pants when I fly and as an excuse for surveillance and militarization of the police.

[Soundman]

15. Not lost at all

Make up story about a non existent threat, evacuate embassy based on said fairy tale, proceed with pre planned drone strikes to take out multiple targets of opportunity. No Benghazi here folks.

Sounds like it is right outta the play book to me.

Next NSA phone intercept. We have good news from the new number two, we have your new "complimentary" Verizon cell phone ready for you sir.

[KarKar]

16. Because there is no war on terror

and he is uncomfortable promoting the lie. You can tell.

[Coyotl]

21. There most certainly is a war on terror and terrorist.

What is in question today is if the new terrorists are now all being created by the war on terror.

[KarKar]

23. You go ahead and believe that bunk.

What ever helps you sleep at night.

[Coyotl]

28. Calling Obama a liar can be viewed as bunk a lot easier than negating the war on terror.

What ever helps you sleep at night.

[leftstreet]

18. DURec

[mick063]

19. Perpetual war is the economic plan.

The government seeks terrorism, creates terrorism, desires terrorism.

There is too much money involved to ever end this. This is the ultimate answer to the expiration of the cold war.

The definition of terrorist is evolving. The definition of security is evolving. The definition of classified information is evolving.

We have to get a handle on this quickly.

[indepat]

24. The President surely knows any perceived weakness in national defense and/or softness in the war

on terra will be exploited. Hell, isn't a CNN anchor still crucifying BHO over Benghazi, and it is presumptive that any innocuous incident will be played to the hilt by the MSM, that the MSM and Repukes will drone on and on about the President being weak on national defense and soft on terra? Hasn't Benghazi already gotten more bad press than 9-11 ever got notwithstanding the obvious immense failure of the Bush administration to take necessary countermeasures in the face of a known impending terrorist attack on American soil?

[BeyondGeography]

27. Were we as a party to take the la-dee-da attitude of most of the people in this thread

We would never win another national election.

[jasond54231]

25. The whole "War on Terror" is nothing but a sham

Terrorism isn't something that can be eliminated altogether. And frankly, our presence in places like Afghanistan only serve to fuel the fire.

[burnodo]

26. "War on Terror" was a joke when Bush was president

Now it's tried an true...a REAL phenomenon where the White Knight (Black Knight?) is fighting for our lives.