Failed War On Terror (Republished re-written edition)

The Failed War On Terror ( new Improved and republished)

This is a re-tread of an article I took down. Hopefully an improved version.

The first issue I wanted to talk about was the political speeches that were made by the President during the week leading up to 9-11-06 which were billed as not being political events

The speeches were made for 4 days last week. They were run live by Fox news. We did learn something we already knew. There were secret CIA prisons. We suddenly found out that 14 of the key suspects were moved to Gitmo. There was also a call by the administration to pass some sort of legal frame work 5 years after we captured these suspects. My point is that these politically staged events are a desperate political tactic to bring the debate back around to the so called war on terror. The back drop is that most of the country does not consider the war in Iraq to be part of the overall war on terror. Most of the country is not happy with the way the war is going in Iraq.

The next issue is the war in Afghanistan. According to all recent accounts there is still a real war going on in Afghanistan. The Taliban who are the actual protectors of Al Quaida have made a major comeback in the southern provinces of Afghanistan. They are openly controlling territory and there is real fighting going on with U.S. and NATO troops. The old news part about this is that we did not finish the job in Afghanistan because we sent much of our military troops and resources to Iraq. The other issue which has also been recently revealed is that the Pakistani Army is not going to fight against the warlords who are protecting the favorite hiding places of UBL. This is the mountainous region of no man's land encompassing the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. Another issue which has made the news is the fact that this year's poppy crop is one of the biggest ever. This is a major source of cash for re-arming and re-hiring the Taliban fighters.

So let us re-cap the facts on the ground. The war in Iraq rages on with many of our finest people being killed along with many Iraqi civilians. The war in Iraq is actually a major recruiting tool for the terrorists. We have not finished the Taliban off. So once again the mission accomplished banner must be pulled down. Now if you want to say that we are winning because we have not been attacked at home that may be a valid point but I do not think so. The 2600+ Americans who are dead are our people. The 20,000 or so wounded are also our people. So to say that we are fighting the terrorist there rather than here is a hollow feeling for the widows,children, and grieving parents.

The last issue is the protection of our homeland. We can not be 100% safe. We have not secured our border by any stretch of the imagination. Our ports are not secure. Our chemical plants and most of our transportation infrastructure is not protected at all.

So that is the case made that we have a failed policy in protecting ourselves from Radical Islamist terrorists. It is only a matter of time before we are hit. So instead of fighting amongst ourselves we need to take a new direction and perhaps elect some new leadership who will put our American resources into re-building America's infrastructure and securing our homeland.

So what do my esteemed colleagues have to say about the re-posted version of my article?