defenseman
05-16-2007, 10:04 AM
Web Posted: 05/15/2007 06:06 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
From the foiled terrorist plot at Fort Dix, we can learn at least four important lessons.
First: Stop blaming America. Four of the six accused conspirators are ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo region of the former Yugoslavia. A decade ago, Kosovo was the scene of a bloody struggle between Serbian nationalists and Albanian Muslims.
The Clinton administration made determined diplomatic efforts to end the violence in Kosovo, as elsewhere in the Balkans. When diplomacy collapsed in 1999, Bill Clinton compelled America's European allies to take military action in support of the Albanians.
NATO — which effectively meant the United States — launched a 78-day bombing campaign of Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia. Gen. Wesley Clark commanded the operation.
By mid-June, the American-led effort halted the ethnic cleansing of Albanian Muslims. KFOR, a NATO security force for Kosovo, arrived. Some 1,700 Americans still serve in Kosovo, constituting about 10 percent of KFOR's troop strength.
That a group of Albanian Muslims would conspire to slaughter American soldiers on U.S. soil is evidence that goodwill efforts and public diplomacy will never win the hearts and minds of Islamic extremists.
Irrespective of what the United States does in the world, their belief system requires them to destroy the forces of liberalism and modernity, of which the United States is the foremost exponent.
Why do they hate us? Because they subscribe to a hateful ideology, not because of American actions.
Second: Don't redeploy from New Jersey. Closely related to the blame-America theory of international terrorism is the belief that the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is what propels the violent insurgency. Remove the U.S. military, this line of reasoning goes, and al-Qaida jihadists and Baathist dead-enders will simply melt away.
The logical extension of this argument is that the removal of American forces will cause al-Qaida jihadists and Taliban dead-enders to quit Afghanistan. And the obvious corollary to this strained hypothesis is that the United States should now strategically redeploy its forces from New Jersey, perhaps to Staten Island or Okinawa.
Before Gen. Peter Pace draws up plans to evacuate Fort Dix, it might be worth pondering whether this hypothesis is even remotely accurate.
Third: Immigration is national security. Three of the conspirators were in the United States illegally, legitimately entering the country as children then overstaying their visas. Despite misdemeanor run-ins with law enforcement for traffic and drug offenses, their illegal status never became an issue.
Two other conspirators held green cards. Which means — frighteningly — that after background investigations, the U.S. government deemed these men eligible for permanent resident status.
Nearly six years after 9-11, how on Earth is this possible?
It goes without saying that a small number of the millions of immigrants who legally and illegally enter this country pose a threat to national security. It also goes without saying that a small number of immigrants with legal and illegal status carried out the 9-11 plot.
The 9-11 commission famously cited a failure of imagination in assessing the terrorist threat. There's no imagination required here.
Twelve million immigrants are in the United States illegally. More come every day while others who are here legally fall out of legal compliance. Our enemies know how to evade and game a porous immigration system.
The United States should have a generous immigration policy that takes into account economic and social realities in this nation and elsewhere. But the inability of the federal government to control its borders and keep track of visitors is national suicide.
Fourth: The United States has real enemies who intend to do real harm to Americans.
Finding the proper balance between privacy and security in a new form of war is an ongoing process.
But pretending those enemies and that war don't exist will ultimately prove disastrous both to civil liberties and national security
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA051607.02O.gurwitz.21b5715.html
Thought this was a reasonably well thought out article that may spark some interest.....dman
San Antonio Express-News
From the foiled terrorist plot at Fort Dix, we can learn at least four important lessons.
First: Stop blaming America. Four of the six accused conspirators are ethnic Albanians from the Kosovo region of the former Yugoslavia. A decade ago, Kosovo was the scene of a bloody struggle between Serbian nationalists and Albanian Muslims.
The Clinton administration made determined diplomatic efforts to end the violence in Kosovo, as elsewhere in the Balkans. When diplomacy collapsed in 1999, Bill Clinton compelled America's European allies to take military action in support of the Albanians.
NATO — which effectively meant the United States — launched a 78-day bombing campaign of Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia. Gen. Wesley Clark commanded the operation.
By mid-June, the American-led effort halted the ethnic cleansing of Albanian Muslims. KFOR, a NATO security force for Kosovo, arrived. Some 1,700 Americans still serve in Kosovo, constituting about 10 percent of KFOR's troop strength.
That a group of Albanian Muslims would conspire to slaughter American soldiers on U.S. soil is evidence that goodwill efforts and public diplomacy will never win the hearts and minds of Islamic extremists.
Irrespective of what the United States does in the world, their belief system requires them to destroy the forces of liberalism and modernity, of which the United States is the foremost exponent.
Why do they hate us? Because they subscribe to a hateful ideology, not because of American actions.
Second: Don't redeploy from New Jersey. Closely related to the blame-America theory of international terrorism is the belief that the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is what propels the violent insurgency. Remove the U.S. military, this line of reasoning goes, and al-Qaida jihadists and Baathist dead-enders will simply melt away.
The logical extension of this argument is that the removal of American forces will cause al-Qaida jihadists and Taliban dead-enders to quit Afghanistan. And the obvious corollary to this strained hypothesis is that the United States should now strategically redeploy its forces from New Jersey, perhaps to Staten Island or Okinawa.
Before Gen. Peter Pace draws up plans to evacuate Fort Dix, it might be worth pondering whether this hypothesis is even remotely accurate.
Third: Immigration is national security. Three of the conspirators were in the United States illegally, legitimately entering the country as children then overstaying their visas. Despite misdemeanor run-ins with law enforcement for traffic and drug offenses, their illegal status never became an issue.
Two other conspirators held green cards. Which means — frighteningly — that after background investigations, the U.S. government deemed these men eligible for permanent resident status.
Nearly six years after 9-11, how on Earth is this possible?
It goes without saying that a small number of the millions of immigrants who legally and illegally enter this country pose a threat to national security. It also goes without saying that a small number of immigrants with legal and illegal status carried out the 9-11 plot.
The 9-11 commission famously cited a failure of imagination in assessing the terrorist threat. There's no imagination required here.
Twelve million immigrants are in the United States illegally. More come every day while others who are here legally fall out of legal compliance. Our enemies know how to evade and game a porous immigration system.
The United States should have a generous immigration policy that takes into account economic and social realities in this nation and elsewhere. But the inability of the federal government to control its borders and keep track of visitors is national suicide.
Fourth: The United States has real enemies who intend to do real harm to Americans.
Finding the proper balance between privacy and security in a new form of war is an ongoing process.
But pretending those enemies and that war don't exist will ultimately prove disastrous both to civil liberties and national security
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/stories/MYSA051607.02O.gurwitz.21b5715.html
Thought this was a reasonably well thought out article that may spark some interest.....dman