BY MICHAEL SCHEUER
Sunday, September 9th 2007, 4:00 AM
On the sixth 9/11 anniversary, Americans can see that Osama Bin Laden has taught them a valuable lesson about the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the U.S.bipartisan governing elite. In 1989, Bin Laden famously told the mujahedeen that beating the U.S. would be easier than defeating the U.S.S.R. in Afghanistan because Americans are soft, impatient, risk averse and afraid to offend their effete European role models by fully using U.S. military power.
Osama was wrong about our military's courage — it is fighting superbly against long odds — but dead right regarding our elected and high-ranking appointed officials, Republicans and Democrats alike.
The moral cowards governing us today have handed Afghanistan to Bin Laden. Instead of sending a half-million troops to that country, sealing its border with Pakistan, annihilating anyone who fought us, and then coming home, President Bush listened to then-CIA director George Tenet's promise that bribery and a few CIA and U.S.Special Forces officers would win the war. Tenet's recipe let about 60,000 Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters go home with their guns and missed Bin Laden at Tora Bora.
And as for those now aspiring to the presidency, I don't hear a single voice — Democrat or Republican — claiming we should have wielded far more force there.
As a result of this cowardice, today we are fighting a more numerous and better trained and armed foe. Meanwhile, Bin Laden and his boys sit unmolested on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, planning more attacks in America because our bipartisan elite long ago delegated America's protection to a beleaguered Third World dictator.
On balance, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are more threatening today than on 9/11. As the July National Intelligence Estimate reported, the core of Al Qaeda is rebuilt, aiding Iraqi and Afghan insurgents, and preparing attacks in the United States. Worse, the proliferation of Al Qaeda-inspired, homegrown groups in the West is accelerating, as we saw last week in Germany and Denmark.
Bin Laden is doing well militarily: He commands a potent organization, and is instigating a new worldwide threat that is nearly impossible to detect, let alone preempt. The lies of U.S. political leaders do not help us face down our foe. They say Bin Laden, et. al are primarily motivated by their hatred of America's freedoms. Not so. The impact of our policy is the Islamists' core motivation and a glue of unity for that ethnically and linguistically diverse crowd.
The second oft-heard lie is that America is safer than on 9/11. But our governing elite has knowingly failed to accomplish its two most vital post-9/11 tasks: controlling U.S. borders and fully securing the former Soviet Union's nuclear weapons.
Because of this criminal neglect, no level of American law enforcement has a fighting chance to stop the next attack, unless an obviously deranged guy, wearing a Bin Laden T-shirt and carrying a clearly labeled Soviet nuke, comes through an official entry point.
So on this 9/11, we must accept this sad and infuriating reality: Bin Laden is winning. He has defied us, attacked us, eluded us and inspired new threats we cannot begin to enumerate.
To be victorious in this long war, we must get smarter and more ruthless. That means reducing U.S. intervention in the Muslim world, keeping policies essential to U.S. security and unloading those that undermine it — like energy dependence on the Saudi and other Gulf regimes. This will start to deflect Islamist and Muslim ire onto their main enemy, the Arab world's Islamofascist rulers.
Second, we must ignore international opinion and apply overwhelming military force on Islamists and their abettors whenever necessary to defend America. This will cost Bin Laden much of the popular support generated by some current U.S. policies.
As this support erodes, the Islamists can be destroyed by men and women descended from those who delivered catastrophe to America's German and Japanese enemies.
Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years, and was chief of the Bin Laden unit at the agency's counterterrorist center from 1996 to 1999. He is the author of "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror."
5 comments:
"The art of using troops is this:
......When ten to the enemy's one, surround him;
......When five times his strength, attack him;
......If double his strength, divide him;
......If equally matched you may engage him;
......If weaker numerically, be capable of withdrawing;
......And if in all respects unequal, be capable of eluding him,
..........for a small force is but booty for one more powerful."
- Sun Tzu, the Art Of War
The United States army had to have had Bin Laden and his troops outnumbered 5 to 1 at the very least, and almost definitely by more. If we had used our full strength at the beginning of the war, there is a good chance that we wouldn't even be worrying about this post now, because the war would have been over.
This is the real reason that we should be building a border fence and increasing our border security forces, NOT some nativist idea about illegal immigrants destroying our country.
I want to know if he was in the CIa for 22 years and lead the Osama hunting division, why didn't he capture Osama if he is such a genius. He was in power well before 9/11 and obviously knew Osama is a threat.
i totally agree with Pepe, if he was so involved with the whole thing then why wasnt something done about it, sounds like he knows what he is talking about so why wasnt something done? just sitting here and complaining about what wasnt done really isnt helpin much is it?
pepe,207, think about what you just said. her you are talking about osama bin laden, who has skillfully evaded the U.S. for more then ten years,and your bagging on the CIA over it? let me give you some info you might not know.
bin laden isn't your everyday radical who straps a bomb to his chest and runs into a crowd chanting... Bin laden in fact is a pretty smart guy.he was born into a wealthy family, and studied civil engineering and management at the King Abdul Aziz University in Jiddah. so the man has a post education. hes no idiot you see. the guy is also a millionaire, and in the 1970's and early 80's when afghanistan was rebelling against the soviet union,he was there. this is where he started networking, making his own orginization. he gained the loyalty of many people in hig places for fighting off the USSR. so now think about this. because of those ties, and the countries and the peoples loyalty, do you really think they will just give bin laden up? only a fool would. we dont give this man enough credit here. he even takes the simplest of tactics into account. for instance,the terrain. we believe he is hiding in the mountaisn of pakistan/iraq/middle east for crying out loud. thats a lot of mountains,and in those mountains are numerous caves,which interconnect, and some are tucked away even nobody knows about. there is no way we could even find him in there. and thermal detectio wouldnt work, these mountains are in the middle of the desert! and on top of that,he doesnt stay in one spot for long supposedly, and because he has so many connections,he can cross borders easily without detection. now think about all of that. yeah even the CIA couldnt pull that one off,heck youd hafta look into every crack and hole in the earth. its not that hard to drop off the grid of the CIA,all youd hafta do is go hide in a cave for a year or so...
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