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Sept. 28, 2004 From a limited amount of data I am going to wildly hypothesize about George W. Bush's political and military strategy and the inseparability of those elements. First, I take the Bush Doctrine at face value. That is, President Bush believes that the nexus of Islamofascist terrorism, the countries which succor them, and weapons of mass destruction has such extreme potential danger that we cannot wait until a threat is imminent. We must pre- emptively go after the terrorists AND after the nations which harbor, train, supply, and finance them. Second, I believe that Bush has recognized a second grave danger, the liberal media. The liberal media is, aside from the terrorist targets themselves, the greatest hazard in the war on terror. The liberal media emphasizes the bad and hides the good, attempting to destroy America's will and to turn the citizens against the Bush administration. Third, the military itself is a dinosaur, a creature which is large and powerful but also unable to change pace to deal with the mammals which are nipping at it. The mammals are the terrorists. Fourth, the military resists change. It is happier preparing for massive tank battles than it is practicing small-unit counter-terrorist tactics. Fifth, President Bush has the ability his father lacked, "the vision thing," which has allowed him to fabricate a grand strategy and to see needed change, and he has the courage to proceed with the implementation of needed changes despite the vagaries of public opinion, the stodginess of many top military commanders, and the implacable obstructionism and demagoguing of the Democratic leadership. So what is the synthesis of the above? A) Recognizing the dangers of Islamofascist terrorism, and recognizing that the USA would not tolerate an iron-fisted shutdown of borders, internal travel passports, and other measures needed to create a Fortress America, Bush formulated the grand strategy of taking on the terrorists on their home turf, not only to destroy them, but ultimately to remake their breeding ground, the Middle East, into a peaceful democratic society of nations. This is a task that may not be accomplished in our lifetime, but it is nonetheless grand strategy, indicating far-reaching vision and confidence in mankind. One might note that this is, in some political science and historical circles, only the third grand strategy in our nation's history. The first was gaining security through territorial expansion, the Monroe Doctrine. The second was FDR's attempt to gain security through a free Europe and establishing the United Nations. And then there is the Bush Doctrine, our nation's third grand strategy. B) Recognizing that we had already rationale and legal authority for invading Iraq, we first went to Afghanistan and drove out the Taliban and began a process of democratization there, meanwhile getting several resolutions about Iraq through the United Nations and getting a de facto declaration of war by our congress, authorizing President Bush to use all force he deemed appropriate when he deemed. The US Constitution does not specify what language must be used in a declaration of war. I propose that this sufficed, whether congress understood what it was doing or not. C) Recognizing that our massive military with its training in large unit tactics was not suitable for the war on terror, we sent our SpecOps people into Afghanistan and used them extremely efficiently to destroy the Taliban and to rally the rebel forces, and defeated them with minimal loss of life. I suspect, also, that we killed Osama bin Laden in a cave somewhere in Tora Bora. That he has not been seen alive since December, 2001, is quite telling, since he delighted in making video tapes of himself giving long-winded propaganda speeches. Three years is a long time to go without being able to charge your camcorder battery. I have been saying this for over two years, and I note that just today one of the military leaders in charge of capturing Osama has hinted quite strongly that he has seen no conclusive evidence that bin Laden is alive since the bombing of Tora Bora. D) Now the world's terrorists are occupied in Iraq, and are being killed at a quite efficient rate. They are thus occupied there and not in America. E) While the attention of the world is focused on Iraq, our SpecOps units are quietly and effectively working around the world rooting out terrorists and destroying the networks and working through local politics to damage those elements which harbor, train, and finance the terrorists. Our liberal media, as well as the terrorists, is kept busy in Iraq, and thus they are not surveying our SpecOps activities and leaking information about these to the terrorists we are combating. F) Through it all, Bush has not attempted to micromanage the military, instead giving the overall direction and then keeping his fingers out of it. He has employed a double-pronged strategy, both political and military, knowing that the ultimate goal is not military victory, but the political conversion of the country. G) And, domestically, through the Patriot Act and other measures taken in the intelligence and law-enforcemtn communities, we have thwarted many terrorist plots. Al Qaeda had purchased a legitimate business on 32nd Street in New York City and was importing Stinger missiles with which to bring down airliners. These were discovered and intercepted through application of provisions of the Patriot Act. A plot to set off explosive devices in Las Vegas was thwarted. A plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge and bring it to rest on the bottom of the river among piles of autos and bodies was thwarted. Much is being accomplished beind the scenes. Many of our military and our intelligence successes may never, ever come to public attention. Such is the nature of anti-terrorism and counter-terrorism. I firmly believe that President Bush and his administration will be, some day, ranked near the top of presidential rankings. But like the war on terror, this is going to take a long, long time. ------------ About the author Brooks A. Mick: 63-yr-old physician, still practicing medicine but retired from the US Army. Write just for the fun of it, but working on novel in the vein of Tom Clancy's politico-military genre. Email: brooks15@cox.net ------------ |
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