Given the subject of my educational experience, as well as my propensity to keep up with current events in detail, many of my friends ask me questions about subjects from foreign policy and terrorism, to economics and national politics. I almost always want to discuss these issues with them, but rarely have the time to explain things in what I feel are adequate levels of detail. However, given the seventh anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, I thought I would write up a quick synopsis of what we know about the war against terrorism, as well as some sobering details you probably won't hear from the administration or the major media.
So, its 9/11/08. Seven years ago we faced something not many of us ever believed could happen. We trusted our government (regardless of political affiliation) to track down the perpetrators of this horror, and bring them to justice, with the hopes that such atrocities would never take place again. There have been without a doubt tactical victories in this war. Our men and women in uniform deserve our unwavering support and praise. However, few, if any of these tactical victories have done anything to advance the strategic security of the United States, and contributed to a true victory in our war against Islamic extremism.
Consider these figures, as they will undoubtedly astound you. Most open source estimates suggest that Islamic terrorist training camps (of the Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiya, and other variety) have trained AT LEAST 100,000, and up to 1,000,000 Muslims in the art of committing terrorism between 1982 and 2001. U.S. leadership claims to have captured or killed roughly 3,000-4,000 militants in Afghanistan, and 4,000 militants in Iraq. This means that AT BEST we have killed or captured 8% of those trained in terrorist camps in the 20 years between 1982-2001, and possibly less than 1%! This also fails to include the surely massive numbers of radicals that have been trained, and presently are being trained at the Al-Qaeda camps that have been re-established in Pakistan and throughout South Asia. In fact, most estimates of those recruited and trained in the post 9/11 era far exceed the number of militants we have effectively eliminated from Al-Qaeda's ranks.
Of course this does not even mention the fact that Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the true masterminds of Al-Qaeda have not been captured and continue to exert their influence through videos, audio recordings, and writings. What is even more disturbing is the current situation in Afghanistan. While the United States spends more than $12 billion (12,000,000,000 to put it in perspective) A WEEK in Iraq, a country where Al-Qaeda was not present prior to the 2003 start of our war there, the former Taliban regime has rolled up control of most of the countryside. The Ahmed Karzai led government, installed by the United States controls only the major population centers, and according to many experts such as Michael Scheuer and Bruce Hoffman, Al-Qaeda members are successfully recruiting young Afghans in the open throughout the mountainous nation. Afghan opium production is at an all time high, and heroin produced in the region is reaching U.S. shores for the first time in history. Finally, the western, tribally controlled regions of Pakistan are the likely safe havens for most of Al-Qaeda's leadership, and many experts believe the region is home to many Al-Qaeda training camps at the present.
These facts demand serious and painful questions about our efforts to fight Al-Qaeda since 9/11. The American people have paid a significant price in the lives of our young and best, as well as an unbelievable price in U.S. dollars to wage this war. Civil rights have been sacrificed at home. Our generation's future has been mortgaged by the high financial price of these wars. And perhaps most disturbing, more wars are on the horizon against those who had nothing to do with 9/11/01. Sadly, if we do not demand that our government focus on defeating those who actually present a threat to us, and cease to parade our young people into more democracy building exercises that create many times more terrorists than they destroy, the day will come when 9/11/01 will be seen as a minor attack along the lines of the USS Cole. If Al-Qaeda detonates a nuclear device on U.S. soil, it will be impossible to say it happened without warning. History will judge us for our actions in the later portion of the 20th century, and immediately following the September 11th attacks. The question is, what will history have to say?
So I ask again, are we really winning?
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