My brilliant colleague, Walid Phares, has posted a fine piece on Fox’s site, and Andy McCarthy, another brilliant colleague at FDD, has done a similarly insightful piece over at NRO. As they say, the al Qaeda “mastermind,” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, along with four underlings, are trying to turn their trial (at Guantanamo) into a political circus, and use their inevitable executions as a recruiting tool for the jihad.
My instinct is to quote Dirty Harry: “come on, make my day.” Andy thinks we should lowkey the whole thing, and try to turn it into a bore. Walid is rather more inclined to use the trial as a platform for attacking jihadism and jihadists. They are both right, needless to say. The problem is that we have an administration that is totally tone-deaf when it comes to explanation America’s actions, whether to the American people or to the broader world. For behind this little circus in Cuba lies a great event, namely the defeat of al Qaeda. And if we had taken credit for this victory, we’d be a lot better placed to talk about KSM and the other four losers.
Because that’s the point: they’re losers, bigtime losers. They attacked us twice, both times at the World Trade Center in New York. The first time around they were unlucky; had they placed the explosives more accurately, they might well have killed tens of thousands of people. The second time they were very lucky; they made their way through a series of incompetent security officials and managed to hijack enough commercial aircraft to kill three thousand innocents. They thought they would bring down America. Instead we unleashed Hell on their own organization, which is now a shambles of its former self.
They picked the time and place of the big fight: Iraq, after the fall of Saddam. They had plenty going for them, from the active support of Iran and Syria to their knowledge of the terrain and of the Iraqi people. They thought they would drive us out, and create the hub of the Caliphate. Instead they were defeated, humiliated, and driven into inglorious exile in…Yemen! Whence Zawahiri wrote to the mullahs to thank them for their invaluable help.
Just a few years ago they were dreaming of global domination. Now they’re thrilled if they can set off a few bombs in Yemen.
If only there were someone, somewhere, in the American Government who could just tell this little story. And then say, “these losers, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his failed comrades, are a testament to what happens to people who foolishly believe they can destroy us. They go to their graves with the taste of defeat in their mouths. The whole world knows they have lost.”
Isn’t that the way to deal with these bums?
A friend of mine pretty much said the same thing other day: “If we kill him, we’ll make him a martyr.” It reminds me of those “Then they’ve already won” people, who confuse every counterterrorism measure as a vindication or victory for the terrorists.
Enhanced security? “Then they’ve already won; they want us to become a police state.” Coercive interrogation? “Then they’ve already won; they want us to undermine our own values.” Killing them militarily? “Then they’ve already won; they want us to engage them, so they can bog us down, and rally the masses to their cause.”
Etc. etc. It’s a theory that promotes a policy of doing much of nothing, frankly. If the 1990s (i.e. Blind Sheikh) taught us anything, it’s that for as long as this Stan Van Gundy look-alike Khalid Mohammed has air in his lungs, al Qaida is equally as inclined to do something violent to free him or bribe his release, as they would be if we “martyred” him. This is a guy who organized the largest attack on our soil in our history.
So I say martyr away.
Andy McCarthy’s prosecutor’s instincts are 100% correct. Shame on us if we allow KSM to become elevated in the manner of his death to more than a lucky gang-banger or serial killer.
I would only add that his body should not be returned to the Middle East for a hero’s funeral. He should be dumped in an anonymous convict’s grave in a U.S. prison.
Yes, those terrorists defeated but they are just underlings. The terror is not defeated as long as the terror masters freely move in the Middle East. Yes, they can set off a few bombs in Yemen or Sudan or Pakistan, but that infernal fatwas “virulent weapon” which exports from Saudi Arabia and KNOWINGLY FROM THE CORRUPT SAUDI government to jihad against so called in “infidels”, surely will create a new kind of jihadis could bombs in the US or Europe that is through the support from their Masters in the region, especially the deepening of global economic crisis could weaken fragile governments in the world’s most dangerous areas and undermine the ability of the United States and its allies to respond to a new wave of security threats.
However, Iran and Syria are allies a linking them religious warm relationships and political, both quite supporters for international terrorism. Both regimes backed terrorist groups. They created the extremist radicals groups as”Hizbollah, Al-Mahdi army “Al-Sader” and Islamic Jihad, and they supports all the other terrorist groups as” Hamas, Al-Aqsa, Al-Qaeda, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Fateh. Let alone the relation was between Al-Qaeda and Saddam regime and Al-Qaeda with other major terrorist groups above. THEY ALL working together, that is a moment America went into Afghanistan.
The cooperation increased when United States was to run-up to Iraqi freedom operation where most of Al-Qaeda leaders were welcomed by Saddam’s regime before Iraq freedom war. So, How Al-Zarqawi and other of Al-Qaeda leaders had been entered into Saddam’s Iraq?! Eight years before 9/11, the World Trade Center was bombed by Islamist fascists. One of them “Abdul Rahman Yassin” fled to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq!
Saddam also harbored Abu Abbas “leader of the Achille Lauro Hijacking, in which an American citizen was shot in his head, and then dumped into the sea. Saddam also harbored the Palestinian terror master Abu Nidal. Ditto Saddam was paying to the families of suicide bombers. So most likely those leaders were sent via Syrian regime, or via these evil regimes “Iranian, Saudi, Libyan, Yemeni and Sudanese”. Of course THEY ALL worked accurately to coordinate the Jihad against the United States.
WE SHOULD BRING DOWN THE TERROR MASTERS SO THAT THE WORLD BE SAFER. Therefore THE UNITED STATES IS REQUIRING A VERY STRONG MILITARY POWER THAN EVER!!!
The better way to deal with them? General ‘Black Jack’ Pershing had a solution, first applied in Mindanao in 1911. [Though it would likely today offend animal 'rights' activists.] That, or a complete sex-change series. The point being death with humiliation; honor denied, on their terms [not ours.]
Our constant ‘playing fair’ or ‘civilized’ is conceit, for it has always been taken by our enemies as weakness. Our failure to exploit their psychological weaknesses is reckless stupidity. Defeat is always in the mind, not always the body count…