Obama the Smart Warrior: Understanding Obama’s Approach to Counter-Terrorism…same ole same ole

By Andre Michael Eggelletion

February 22, 2010

Some in this country still claim that because we have not seen an overt U.S. military response in Yemen to the failed terrorist bombing of a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas day, it signifies Obama is weak on counter-terrorism. Anyone who believes that should be examined to see if they are suffering from amnesia. What that despicable act did highlight is one of America’s greatest strategic blunders; choosing military action in Iraq over direct concentrated focus on al-Qaeda. For years after the attacks of 911 this nation failed to implement an adequate military or political approach to tactically neutralize or politically counter al-Qaeda. Not only did we drop the ball on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but in and around the horn of Africa as well.

The Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, received operational guidance and training in Yemen from a unified organization of al-Qaeda operating in Saudi Arabia and in Yemen called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), not Saddam Hussein.

Abdulmutallab is but one jihadist from the growing ranks of AQAP in Yemen. Everyday in Somalia, al-Shabab (a violent Islamist organization), forces boys and teens to fight the U.S. backed transitional government, even if it means killing their parents. These children end up fleeing the war and chaos of one failed state in Somalia for another in Yemen. They are forced, not only into the hopelessness of refugee outposts in the vast desert of the southern Arabian Peninsula, but into the waiting arms of al-Qaeda and Yemen’s Islamist extremists. Because of years of an inadequate strategy to deal with tribal conflict in Somalia, leftover in the aftermath of the Cold War, a cauldron of violence and a recruiting paradise for extremists has evolved on two continents. Make no mistake; what the Northwest Airlines plot painfully illustrates is the need for a long-term sensible strategy to enhance security and the capacity to govern throughout the region.

The problem for America and the world is how to deal with this chaotic situation without making things worse. Some, mainly on the Right, apparently want an immediate overt military strike in Yemen in response to the failed bomb plot. I’ll admit; it might even feel good, if only for a moment. Others are just looking for a reason to score political points by saying President Obama is weak. Either way, they do err in not learning the lessons of recent history, which have clearly and repeatedly shown that overt retaliatory strikes in response to specific terrorist acts have proven to be an ineffective deterrent, and often precipitate costly blowback. As I have said, unless you are “suffering from amnesia,” the memories of what happened after the Reagan administration decided to overtly retaliate against Libya in 1986 for its involvement in the bombing of a Berlin disco, should temper passions. Two Americans were killed in that act, and Reagan decided to bomb Tripoli. Even though there was little damage done to Tripoli’s infrastructure, the blowback from this overt action was hell: Gaddafi became even more radicalized, and terrorist groups from Libya murdered American and British hostages in Lebanon. Libyan terrorists then blew up Pan Am Flight 103 in the skies over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. What about the Clinton administration’s overt attempts in 1998 to kill Osama Bin Laden in retaliation for the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania? Did it deter Bin Laden? One could even argue that it helped to embolden him enough to attack the U.S.S. Cole on October 12, 2000, and kill three thousand Americans on September 11, 2001. What about “Shock and Awe,” and the war of choice in Iraq? The Iraq war will end up costing the American people over $3 trillion, significantly raising the debt, and exacerbating the most severe economic downturn in 70 years, which began in January 2007. Finally, in another recent example, on December 14, 2009, according to Presstv.ir, “US fighter jets have launched 28 attacks on the northwestern province of Sa’ada. The US has used modern fighter jets and bombers in its offensive against the Yemen fighters.” If this is true, then we must ask ourselves whether or not this last minute escalation to more overt actions at the end of the Bush administration helped to precipitate the Christmas day plot.

I argue not that the Obama administration should do nothing; I only seek to counter the lies and distortions about current counter-terrorism efforts with the truth. Make no mistake about it; President Obama is quietly and very effectively waging the right war; the war against al-Qaeda. The key word is “quietly.” Covert action is being vigorously utilized with great success not only with drones in Pakistan, but on the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa as well; not to mention the recent overt surges in Afghanistan. But unlike the Bush administration, President Obama is killing al-Qaeda’s terrorists largely in surgical ways that reduces radicalization. Covert responses may not generate the kind of press as the more overt response like “Shock and Awe” does, but neither does it generate the kind of blowback that recent history has shown our more overt retaliations have. The risks of overt retaliatory strikes are: it increases al-Qaeda’s unification, possibly stretching the nearly broken military that Obama inherited, and hastening collapse of the fragile Yemeni government. Instead, the Obama administration is intensifying efforts underway with the international community to finally provide comprehensive support to Yemen and Somalia. President Obama is, once and for all, trying to fill the vacuum left in this region at the end of the Cold War. This is a key element of the Obama doctrine; shared responsibility over unilateralism.

In the final analysis, al-Qaeda has to pay. That means the following more pragmatic approach should, and for the most part, is being implemented:

a) We can’t waste our resources on wars of choice anymore. Al-Qaeda attacked us on 911, not Saddam Hussein. Therefore, we are shifting the fight to where the enemy actually resides. Too much was spent on a war of choice in Iraq, and not nearly enough was spent in places like Yemen and Somalia. Therefore, seeing we can’t afford to waste another $10 billion like the previous administration gave to Prevez Musharraf in Pakistan only to have his country restrict our military’s access to al-Qaeda and the Taliban inside their borders. Support for allies must be calibrated on actual results and real strategic expediency.

b) Greater internationalization of responsibilities in combating terrorism is underway, which bolsters geopolitical legitimacy. On his official website, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in January, when he invited key international partners to a high level meeting to discuss how to counter al-Qaeda in Yemen: The international community must not deny Yemen the support it needs to tackle extremism following the failed bomb plot on a US-bound flight on Christmas day.Like our president, Mr. Brown understands that terrorism is an international problem requiring an international response.

c) The situation in Yemen and Somalia screams at us to look at the prudence of nipping anti-Americanism in the bud. That means working towards stabilizing failing states, especially when they are of such high geostrategic importance like the Horn of Africa is to shipment of Persian Gulf area resources.

President Obama quickly learned a big lesson on day one, when a major terrorist plot by Somali extremists to attack his inauguration was found to be a false alarm. He learned just how great of a festering problem he was inheriting from the Bush administration with their failure to deal effectively with al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula. That day also gave the incoming president a crash course in the challenging nature of terrorism: how to find the difference between real and false threats, how to determine the origin of threats, what is the correct response, how to project confidence in the face of danger, andthe need to finally address through internationalization, and begin to win the war against al-Qaeda (a war of necessity).

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