It's Time to Re-Focus the Fight Against Terror

In military terms, this decade may become known as the Age of Irony ...

It's mind-boggling that a very justifiable invasion of Afghanistan to neutralize the government that supported the group responsible for the attacks on America on 11 Sep has been muddied by policy follies elsewhere in the region, to the point where the justifiably ousted Taliban are now in the process of re-claiming their Afghan authority.

These reports have been filtering to the West for over a year. The Taliban were on the run five years ago. Now, their ranks are surging again --- thanks to recruits angered by American-led actions which make no sense to them or their culture --- and becoming more formidable than ever before.

This is an incredibly reprehensible development. The Taliban were and are the harborers of the criminals who caused so much death and destruction to innocents on 11 Sep. They have remained unbowed. How can the Western powers ever have taken their attention away from these people?

We've all heard the sage advice that "it's better to say nothing and let others think you're a fool than to open your mouth and prove it." It's safe to say that its military corollary --- "the threat of great military power can be more effective than the deployment of great military power" --- is just as wise in terms of deterrence. After all, it kept nuclear war at bay for almost half a century.

And to think it took a loosely associated band of assassins to ignite the proof of that point in spades.

While mortality and materiel are being wasted in Iraq, these international criminals have become emboldened. To the disaffected throughout the Middle East, they and their al-Qaeda accomplices have become twisted heroes, standing up to the most omnipresent fighting machines in the world today and getting away with it. Worse yet, Hezbollah has jumped on their bandwagon and won credibility within their culture, and Iran --- with its own version of extremism --- looks to be the new power broker in the region.

The most frustrating point of all is that, except for the most idealistic of anti-war activists, it's all too obvious to realize that the West is stuck. The American-led forces cannot just withdraw, as the political consequences in the region would no doubt be even more dire.

Their only sliver of hope is to re-trench in Afghanistan. The Taliban are brutal killers. It is not difficult to rally around a cause bent on pounding them back into the shadows from which they arose and then working toward eliminating that darkness. (Let's not forget that these so-called religious zealots are also openly in league with the opium lords there; what's not to dislike about re-eliminating this scenario?) This should again become the focal point of Western military policy. It's the only way to garner the political and moral support required for a successful campaign against the original criminals.

Yes, this re-focus would create more problems in Iraq, but what's the difference anymore between a pseudo-civil war there and the real thing? That country is segmenting itself, anyway. The problems there are too deeply rooted for outsiders to resolve in the short term, so they should adjust their policy to minimize their own casualties until Afghanistan can again be cured from the Taliban disease.

Once that happens, perhaps the West can attempt to resume the more ominous posture of a point-to-point threat rather than a spread-too-thin intruder. After all, five years of what's happening now is only making matters worse.

I cannot think of a more fitting tribute to those who died on 11 Sep than to keep the spotlight on those who killed them and make sure they cannot kill again.