The high price of hindsight
The Bush rationale to go beyond a narrow focus on terrorist networks to the broader strategy of confronting rogue states involved in terrorism had historical support. Many atrocities, like the 1983 attack on U.S. military barracks in Beirut, were carried out by groups created and supported by rogue states like Syria and Iran. Iraq, meanwhile, was providing sanctuary to the one remaining culprit who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, one Abdul Rahman Yasin.
Remember, too, that before Iraq, the United States invaded Afghanistan, another rogue state, dispossessing Osama bin Laden of his training bases, provided courtesy of the Taliban. Bush reversed our relations with Pakistan, long considered to be a major danger because of its possession of nuclear weapons and its domestic instability, and Pakistan became a major supporter in our war against terrorism. So addressing the issue of rogue states, including Iraq, was consistent with a successful Bush strategy.
So much for the past. What is critical now is the future. Since 9/11, Bush has demonstrated the courage and leadership to continue to take the war to the terrorists. Bush has recognized that the most important lesson of the attacks is the need for pre-emption. We must deal with terrorist threats before they fully materialize. Everyone now favors our liberation of Afghanistan, but let's not underestimate the political courage it took to attempt that. Many were the predictions that we would be bogged down and beaten as the British and Soviets before us had been. Bush took the risk of warfare against the Taliban and al Qaeda, and succeeded in toppling a regime whose raison d'être was the sponsorship of terrorism. The overheated allegations about the Bush administration's "obsession" with Iraq ignore the fact that state-sponsored terrorism remains a key element of the terrorist threat that will continue to confront America.
As for al Qaeda, Tenet has indicated that we have already taken out as much as two thirds of its leadership. We have put them on the run, stripped them of their top managers, disrupted their financial networks, and made them unable to direct terrorist operations with any degree of control. Still, cutting off the snake's head has left a group of regional terrorist networks capable of operating autonomously, so there can be no letup in our efforts, no diminishing our vigilance. The war, regrettably, is far from over. Winning will require not just fortitude and determination but creativity and patience. Fortunately, the American instinct, unlike that of the Spanish government, is to confront those who espouse and enable terrorism rather than to appease them, while American values support democratization as a key to eliminating terrorism over the long term.
We would all like to turn back the clock. But that's not only impossible, it's beside the point. What's important now is the energy, forcefulness, and clarity with which Bush has engaged his administration in the war against terrorism since 9/11.
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