One of the most wanted men in the history of the world is dead. And America killed him. Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda’s terror-master, reportedly died within the last 24 hours, in Islamabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was not found in some remote cave. He apparently lived quite comfortably in Pakistan’s capital.
The Pakistani government immediately declared that it’s shadowy intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, assisted the American government in finding bin Laden. But in truth, the duplicitous actions of the ISI hindered America’s efforts, cost American lives, and depleted the the will of the nation. The ISI has direct ties to almost all strata of the insurgency in Afghanistan. After bin Laden’s death was the declared, the Pakistani government scrambled to cover its crime of hiding bin Laden for a decade. When the CIA stopped sharing intelligence with the ISI, senior Taliban and al-Qaeda leadership started dying. In 2009, many terrorist leaders escaped because the ISI gave them forewarning of an impending CIA missile attack.
A highly trained and competent covert special operations team located bin Laden’s residence, fought their way past his elite “Black Guard”, and finally killed bin Laden himself.
Cynics will repeat the tired lines about making bin Laden a martyr. These people do not understand the true nature of the insurgency in Afghanistan, nor the nature of war itself. The truth is, the threat of martyrdom is part of the enemy’s propaganda, in hopes that we will be reluctant to kill important terrorist leaders. The insurgents and terrorists are not fearless, all-knowing fighters, and their religious motivations for fighting are not as strong as sometimes reported. Most of them fear death every day but are pushed into battle by leaders far from the frontlines. Moreover, other al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders know that they can no longer depend on the Pakistani government for protection. The game is up. The message to other terrorists in Pakistan is: You are next.
The New Left–heck the Old Left for that matter–fears the CIA. To the average liberal, the CIA is Cloak and Dagger in the most literal sense, comprised of Soldier of Fortune subscribers and balaclava clad torturers. It’s their own fault. They ostracized the agency, just as they did the military, back in the 60s. The intellectual elite from Ivy League schools by and large have been excised from the military and from our intelligence agencies. That’s they want to keep it too, because military recruiters aren’t allowed on most of those campuses.
Now we have one of our best defenses against terrorism in a complete state of disarray. The CIA’s morale by most accounts is very bad. Instead of working on improving collection methods, the administration and the Justice Department want to scrape the bottom of the barrel for agents who’ve committed the horrible act of pouring water on KSM. Oh, and he was really, really tired, too and they wouldn’t let him sleep. Obama appoints a bureaucrat who knows little about the intelligence field, in the form of Leon Panetta then proceeds to ravenously tear into what is really the President’s best friend; no President can make adequate decisions without good intelligence. Demonizing the CIA after 911 and two wars is plain stupid and borne of fear and ignorance.
What a waste of money, time and lives. We’ll pay for decades for this president.
There isn’t much good news for the new president these days. But he could easily make things better for himself. According to a new report, General Stanley McChrystal will request more US troops be sent to Afghanistan. He’s admitted that the current “strategy” isn’t working. Should Obama grant McChrystal’s request and send more Soldiers, it seems plain that this war’s ghost will last at least until the end of his current term, and that will not bode well for another election to office. All the other issues piled on top of this certainly don’t help.
Obama could continue the current ground war for six months, order a deescalation of troops and declare boldly that the US will pursue and kill any Taliban members or members of any other extremist groups should they threaten America. We need not stick around to change Afghanistan. I won’t say it can’t be changed, but I will say it’s not worth the price.
Obama though has already chosen the typical Democrat sideshow when it comes to dealing with extremists: Blame the CIA then start tearing it apart. Carter did it (read Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars), Clinton “gutted” the agency in the words of Tom Clancy and here we go again. The witch hunt will drive talented people from the CIA to places where hey can make more money (the average CIA operative makes about $35,000 a year) and are not in danger of being killed or sent to federal prison for pouring water on mass murderers or keeping them awake for too long.
Those bad, bad Neocons from the Bush administration were even worse than we suspected. Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein tell us so, and how could we not believe any of the words that pour from Pelosi’s botoxed face?
She just seems soooo happy, nowadays! Everyone’s forgotten the fact that Nancy likes to waterboard bad people–unless her new and shiny president doesn’t. And he doesn’t. So Nancy doesn’t, and never did.
HHHHHaaapy! Bush and Cheney....BBBaaadd!
An Ultra-Black Operation has recently been outed. And myyyy goodness it’s a whopper. Makes the US government’s use of biological weapons in mass experiments on American citizens look like paddy cake. Know what Cheney knew about, and didn’t even have the decency to tell Nancy? Huh? Can you guess? The US military was trying to kill Al-Qaeda’s leadership! The nerve!
Now, this super-secret plan didn’t actually manage to kill anyone. The US government decided that using Predator drones was better, quicker and safer. But still. Nancy should have been let in on everything that she could possibly use to take the heat off herself.
Now let’s take a look at the way our military is killing our enemies everyday. It’s the program that’s killed hundreds if not thousands of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, endorsed by Bush and Cheney. And Nancy knew about it, too! We need an investigation!
The memos outline aggressive techniques used by CIA interrogators, including the much publicized but little understood water-boarding technique.
Also touched on are things like stress positions and sleep deprivation–all of which every single US soldier has undergone in Basic Training. US Army Rangers are almost starved. According to the wikipedia entry on Ranger School, common maladies suffered by potential rangers in training are as follows:
It is not uncommon for soldiers to lose 20-40 pounds. Military folk wisdom has it that Ranger School’s physical toll is like years of natural aging; high levels of fight-or-flight stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine, cortisol), along with standard sleep deprivation and continual physical strain, inhibit full physical and mental recovery throughout the course.
Common maladies during the course include weight loss, dehydration, trench foot, heatstroke, frostbite, chilblains, fractures, tissue tears (ligaments, tendons, muscles), swollen hands, feet, knees, nerve damage, loss of limb sensitivity, cellulitis, contact dermatitis, cuts, and insect, spider, bee, and wildlife bites.
I was watching Keith Olberman the other day, not because I wanted to, but because all of the TVs in the chow hall had his disenchanted mug on them. He looked very distraught as he reported that Obama will not authorize prosecution of those named in the memos.
Keith needs to read about some of the things that happened while our SOG and SEAL guys were fighting the Vietcong in Vietnam. Keith thinks the Bush era is somehow comparable to Mao’s China or Stalin’s USSR. He really does.
See, I’m betting that Keith was one of the last guys picked for kickball in school. I’m betting he never played sports, despite being a former commentator for ESPN.
I think Keith would do well to experience the real world. Get out and smell some fresh air. Climb a mountain. Get attacked by an enraged chimpanzee, well fed on lobster and ice cream. Then, he’d know how tough things can be. He’d stop worrying about the CIA keeping Islamic assassins awake for 24 hrs.
He may even come to realize that US soldiers–teenagers many–put up with CIA “torture” techniques everyday.
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