Former Air Force Officer (and pilot) John Robb writes today about CIA Officer who recently wrote a book Imperial Hubris about the Global War on Terror. Some interesting points:
# Al Qaeda and its ilk represent a national security threat to the US. This is war and it is going to last a long time.
# The tempo of attacks and activity within al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist organizations is increasing.
# Polls in the Islamic world indicate that our policies are opposed by 80-90% of the people (not our way of life). This is the basis of al Qaeda’s support.
# The policies opposed: Our military presence in Saudi Arabia. Our support for appostate regimes in the Islamic world (Egypt and Saudi Arabia). Our unqualified support for Israel. Pressure to maintain low oil prices. Support for regimes that surppress muslims (India and China).
# These policies cannot be debated within the US political system.
# Democracy can’t be exported.
# The solution is to revise our policies to meet the needs of the Islamic world because it is in our interest — or — if we can’t do that, we should be ruthless in our use of military power.
# Our military posture is defensive. It should be aggressive. Our generals have become bureaucrats. To win this militarily, it is going to require a high body count.
# No single official will be faulted in the 9/11 report (and therefore nobody will be fired), despite substantial failures.
There are many good points here. Some of which I agree with – others that I do not necessarily agree with – but eyeopening nonetheless.
I’ve been telling people over the last few weeks two revelations that I’ve had in recent weeks.
The first is that I will likely see suicide bombings here in the United States within my lifetime.
The other, from a speech by Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker a month or so ago, is that we will likely be at war with Islamic fundamentalists for the rest of our lives.
The world changed on September 11th – and there are some in this country that still doesn’t recognize that…