Go Back   Professional Soldiers ® > UWOA > Terrorism

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 01-18-2010, 08:15   #1
Richard
Quiet Professional
 
Richard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
Obama’s War Over Terror

An interesting background read on the evolution of our current national policy.

And so it goes...

Richard


Quote:
Obama’s War Over Terror
Peter Baker, NYT, 17 Jan 2010

<snip>

For all of the attention on the Nigerian underwear bomber, some experts say they believe the more insidious threat will be a new generation of homegrown extremists. In recent months, authorities have arrested a number of American citizens and legal residents, including Najibullah Zazi, an airport-shuttle driver who is suspected of plotting to attack New York after receiving training in Pakistan, and David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-American accused of aiding terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Just a week ago, authorities arrested two associates of Zazi’s. And then there is the Fort Hood shooting rampage, as well as a group of Somali-Americans from Minnesota who reportedly wanted to fight in Somalia and five American Muslims from Virginia who traveled to Pakistan supposedly to join the jihad.

If they are the next wave, American extremists are going to be hard to track and stop. The Internet makes it possible for Al Qaeda and its allies to reach out from the dusty villages of Waziristan all the way to Illinois and Colorado. “Although no one wants to admit it, I think a watershed has been crossed in the terrorist threat in the United States,” Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University terrorism scholar, told me. “It’s way different than it was in the Bush years.”

The Obama administration has been trying to figure out how to counter it. In October, Obama secretly ordered a review of the ways different agencies track travels between the United States and places like Pakistan to look for holes to close. Napolitano told me: “We can’t operate in the paradigm that if they attack us, they would be coming from other countries into the United States. We have some that are homegrown. That is a change.”

After all the lawyerly focus on Guantánamo and the rules of war, the latest threats put more focus on Obama in the role of commander in chief. It did not go unnoticed that when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, he declared that “evil does exist in the world.” After the Christmas Day plot, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, consciously or not, used the term “war on terror.” The White House then dispatched Brennan for a blitz of four Sunday shows, the first such foray for the C.I.A. veteran.

Obama made almost as many statements about terrorism in the two weeks following Christmas as he did in the 11 months preceding it, not counting those focused on Afghanistan. “Our nation is at war,” Obama declared on Jan. 2. “We are at war,” he said five days later as he released reports on the Detroit plot.

The war goes on, abroad and at home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/ma...gewanted=print
__________________
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)

“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
Richard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-18-2010, 10:10   #2
lindy
Guerrilla Chief
 
lindy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Ft Benning
Posts: 707
I wonder who they define as "American Extremists": Arab-Americans, Pakistani-Americans, Somali-Americans, etc or Republicans with military experience. Are you an extremist if you own several semi-automatic rifles? What is an extreme amount of stored center-fire ammo?
__________________
"I see that you notice that I wear glasses. Well, it was to be. I've not only grown old and gray, I've become almost blind in the service of my country." - General George Washington

"There are times in your life you'll be required to perform an exceedingly difficult task to the best of your ability, regardless of your perceived capability. Mental toughness is what will carry the day during these times. In other words, you suck it up and do what you have to do." - Razor
lindy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-18-2010, 16:24   #3
Sigaba
Area Commander
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Southern California
Posts: 4,476
Quote:
“Although no one wants to admit it, I think a watershed has been crossed in the terrorist threat in the United States,” Bruce Hoffman, a Georgetown University terrorism scholar, told me. “It’s way different than it was in the Bush years.”

The Obama administration has been trying to figure out how to counter it. In October, Obama secretly ordered a review of the ways different agencies track travels between the United States and places like Pakistan to look for holes to close. Napolitano told me: “We can’t operate in the paradigm that if they attack us, they would be coming from other countries into the United States. We have some that are homegrown. That is a change.”
Mr. Hoffman acts as if readers of the New York Times do not also read Foreign Affairs. The May/June 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs featured Mr. Hoffman's blistering review of Marc Sageman's Leaderless Jihad. That review, available here, challenged Mr. Sageman's central premise that home grown terrorist networks pose the central threat to America in GWOT.

As the "Bush years" ended less than a year ago (unless one asks the incumbent administration's apologists about the current president's "inheritance"), one can only wonder if there has been a "watershed" event or if Mr. Hoffman is appropriating an argument he previously trashed in order to remain in the limelight.^

(And are homegrown terrorist networks really new to America? At times, it seems as if we Americans are allergic to own history.)

One last point. To put it bluntly, Secretary Napolitano's use of the word "paradigm" is another sad example of the proliferation of anti-intellectualism in contemporary American strategic culture. Words mean things.*

__________________________________________________ ___
^ Have you noticed how often of late words like "secret," "true," "myth," and "inside" are being used in the titles of books? Marketing decisions and rescue fantasies abound.
* Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (ISBN-13 9780226458083).
Sigaba is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 01-18-2010, 16:34   #4
HowardCohodas
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sigaba View Post
Words mean things.*

__________________________________________________ ___
^ Have you noticed how often of late words like "secret," "true," "myth," and "inside" are being used in the titles of books? Marketing decisions and rescue fantasies abound.
* Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (ISBN-13 9780226458083).
Yes, Yes ,Yes!!!
  Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 15:17.



Copyright 2004-2022 by Professional Soldiers ®
Site Designed, Maintained, & Hosted by Hilliker Technologies