Comments on: The hunt for terrorists

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:53:01 +0000

Ed,
Dubya’s great failing as a war president is not that he fails to get the word out. We could do a lot more about getting the word out without blowing the cover of secret operations, and we ought to do so. We ought to be using radio and television braodcasts to help bring down the Pharaohs of Teheran as we did during the Cold War, for example. But Bush’s greatest failing, the most important one I think, is that he is not ruthless enough. The Duke of Alba (d. 1582) said, out of bitter personal experience “Kings use men like oranges. They squeeze out the juice and throw away the rind.” A President has to do the same thing, it comes with the job. Bush has not done so. Look how long Tenet stuck around after 9/11. It makes Dubya a more amiable man,but it is a weakness in a war president, especially when you consider the character of the enemy.

By: Ed Hausman

Ed Hausman — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:06:57 +0000

Eric J Says: Letâ€s give these guys a month in the Caribbean,

Cuba? Venezuela? :-) --- Guys, this is America. Secrecy can be useful, but telling Americans what our enemies already know is not telling tales out of school. I remember things that happened during my own military service that you still aren't going to read about, but that our troops are stationed somewhere and running operations somewhere else? Not a surprise to our enemies who are getting pounded by them. If George Bush has one great failing as leader of the Free World, it's that he doesn't speak up enough, he doesn't get the word out, he doesn't publicize our successes enough. So the mainstream, meanstreak media gets to portray all our undertakings as being in vain. --- Lefty, the Somali Islamists don't have to be card-carrying members of Al-Qaida to be doing their work for them. They were sure well on their way to setting up a local Taliban-style state. If this was just the latest phase of the Somali-Ethiopian conflict, so be it. We still saw our enemies routed, and for once, Ethiopia did good for some Somalis, instead of running just another cross-border skirmish. I'm sorry you weren't impressed. Next time around, maybe we can get the White House to include you in a more detailed briefing.

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 04:47:39 +0000

“Getting the message out” may lead to no more action like this. There was an awful lot about World War II we did not hear about until after the war, and that made fighting the war more effective than if we had heard about them.

Of course you have a bunch of twits in the US, including congresscritters, alleging that while we are fighting terrorists in Iraq and prying open some political space for something other than Islamism or dictatorship, we are not fighting the terrorists. The same people who make this argument then blow operations or denounce operations intended to do just that (as the New York Fishwrap does). Feh.

By: Tatterdemalian

Tatterdemalian — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:34:58 +0000

"This is good news and great work by our Special Ops forces. It is, however, news Iâ€d rather not have read about." But if you didn't read about it, then Dubya would be failing to get the message out.

By: Lefty

Lefty — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:11:28 +0000

Color me less than impressed, for I’m not seeing any evidence that we actually killed or captured any al-Qaida terrorists. We may have killed one Aden Hashi Ayro, a high level local Islamist who went through Afghanistan (presumably before 9/11), but there’s no evidence that Ayro was in al-Qaida.
In fact, the only link that’s being alleged between the Somali Islamists and al-Qaida is an allegation that the Soamlis were harboring Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, planner of the African embassy bombings, and other members of al-Qaida’s East Africa cell. A plausible interpretation of events is that the Ethiopians whispered “Al-Qaida” into American ears to get us to fight their war for them in what’s really just a local conflict between Ethiopia and Somalia.

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 02:38:10 +0000

This is good news and great work by our Special Ops forces. It is, however, news I’d rather not have read about.

Sabba hits the nail on the head. While it is good to know these things happen, it is better if they are secret. Without secrecy they cannot be done. Even revealing that US forces were operating in Ethiopia may cause problems that will lead the Ethiopians to end the cooperation, if other African countries bring enough pressure to bear.

There are too damn many officials in the US government who want to preen before the press by revealing secret information (as appears to be the case here) or who want to sabotage some oeprations by revealing them (as with the interception of terrorist phone calls and the tracking of terrorist finances via the SWIFT program). This is a grave institutional weakness of the US.

By: Alex Bensky

Alex Bensky — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 02:10:00 +0000

Happy to join in, Meryl. Thanks, guys. Because of people like you, our enemies know they can never truly find safe harbor, that you will root them out wherever they are.

As to negotiating with al-Qaeda and their ilk, I think an AC-130 is a fitting negotiator.

By: Sabba Hillel

Sabba Hillel — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 00:56:02 +0000

Yes, but I think it would be better to have kept it secret. Now that it is known to be a success, expect the Democrats to try to pass a bill banning such cooperation.

By: Eric J

Eric J — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 20:34:16 +0000

Let’s give these guys a month in the Caribbean, and then send them to Warziristan.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 18:02:36 +0000

Hurrah !!