September 11, 2001…
13 years ago on 9-11, we were attacked by Muslim jihadists. It was not the first time, just the most successful. It woke us up to the reality that when someone declares war on you, ignoring it is not a good option.
I do miss the clarity offered by George Bush. He didn’t condemn all Muslims as terrorists, but neither did he unrealistically deny we are under attack by Muslim terrorists. Today we are led by someone that treats Islamic terrorism like we live in a Harry Potter novel and we cannot mention “he who shall not be named”.
Pardon me for suspecting it doesn’t bode well to go to war under a leader that isn’t even willing to properly identify WHO we are at war with. They know exactly who we are. We should be as honest about it.
Last night the president said he will model the coming conflict on our actions in Yemen and Somalia.
Does anyone recall us WINNING in Yemen or Somalia?
We haven’t. They are as we speak, hotbeds of terrorism, and well established training grounds for terrorists. Why would we model our effort on a plan that hasn’t provided a successful result?
One vivid memory of the Somalia campaign was the Mogadishu event recorded in the book Blackhawk Down. The trouble stemmed from troops expected to do a job while being limited to lesser weapons than they asked for. They were sent to capture a warlord and his crew. They requested armor for extraction and AC130 gunships flying support.
They got much less, because civilians halfway across the world in Clintonian DC wanted something “lower profile” in the name of political correctness. [Can’t look like bullies dontchaknow.] Our men went in without the armor and firepower we could easily have supplied, and in result we lost men we shouldn’t have lost.
Then the president pulled our troops out like our tail was catching fire instead of retaliating in force. Result: Somalia is to this day a lawless terrorist paradise. Sure, let’s make THAT our model.
I guess the bright side is he didn’t say he’d base it on his response in Benghazi.
So yes… I fully believe the president will model our effort on failed campaigns and try to fight a politically correct war. He’s the first president to ever try to treat war as a video game. He will get more people hurt than he will help because he’s forgotten the benefit of being a super-power in a war is USING that power. If you MUST fight, unleash the dogs and fight.
We are entering into a conflict the president clearly didn’t wish to fight but was dragged into by public opinion. He is truly trying to “lead from behind”. I am not looking forward to watching him try to run a war based on the latest public opinion poll while ignoring advice of military leaders for whom his every action has shown disdain.
What he should be doing is telling our military what the GOAL is, and let THEM develop the strategy to accomplish it. I have faith in our military, but an army of lions led by a lamb may be in trouble up against an army of lambs led by a lion.
As 9/11/2001 showed us, we can’t ignore the threat, but going about this as it is being handled is very troubling.
