HOW ISIS RELIES ON EDWARD SNOWDEN’S LEAKS TO OUTSMART WESTERN INTELLIGENCE: Terrorists “now use encrypted channels and couriers to avoid detection.”
And concurrently, as Glenn noted last week, summing up Richard Fernandez’s recent article, “Western Pacifism Has Driven Warfare Underground, At Some Cost.”
Richard wrote, “The infrastructure to support the secret wars has been growing over the years. The rise of foreign and domestic surveillance deserves an essay all to itself. But today, a network of secret bases, landing strips, agents in place, spotters and communications networks has been laid over the length and breadth of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Fleets of unmarked planes, swarms low visibility drones and secret warriors make up a ghostly army that is endlessly engaged.”
But with seemingly very little show for it. As James Delingpole quipped last night, “Candle-lit vigils; hashtags; tricolor Facebook profiles: the West strikes back.”
France’s attack on ISIS in Raqqa, Syria yesterday doesn’t sound like that much more, in the scope of things: 20 bombs were dropped from a dozen aircraft, ten of which were fighters.*
After 9/11, George Bush famously contrasted his approach to removing Saddam Hussein with his predecessor’s preferred style. “When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.”
That action worked, as Joe Biden and Barack Obama grudgingly admitted in 2010 and 2011, until, as the New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins documented, Obama chose to remove the American military from Iraq. When, in an interview with Filkins last year, Hugh Hewitt said, “America leaving [Iraq] in 2011 may have been the worst strategic decision of many bad strategic decisions over the last ten years.” the Iraq War critic replied, “It’s hard to conclude otherwise.”
Once he leaves office, perhaps the American military can finally take Mr. Obama’s motto to heart: “Punch back twice as hard,” rather than the current minimal footprint approach.
* Give them credit for the right idea, though. As one person joked on Twitter, “Weird how Jordan & France go bomb the shit out of ISIS Terrorists after attacks & Obama arrests a YouTube director.”