Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Another ‘war’ driven by noble futility?


By PAT MURPHY
Express Staff Writer

Want to know how the "war" on terrorism will turn out?

Look to the other "wars"—on drugs, on urban gang violence, on prostitution, on business fraud, on spousal abuse and others designated as worthy of government intervention and more billions of dollars.

This new war is more likely than not doomed to the same—endless, costly, admirable futility.

The time will come when generals who predict victory with more troops, high-tech weapons and money, and politicians who wave Old Glory and pound their chests about not retreating will face cold reality.

Pilotless drones with missiles and battalions of tanks and infantry are useless against terrorists. Firepower and troops can't destroy cockeyed ideas stoked with religious obsession and a yen for suicide.

The Taliban and al-Qaeda don't do battle along neatly drawn frontlines or from easily spotted headquarters. That went out with World War II. Terrorists are holed up throughout the Middle East, Malaysia and the Philippines. They're recruited and inculcated by crazed Islamic mentors peddling foolishness about suicide bombers finding paradise and virgins in death.

We've been up against this before, but have forgotten. Primitive waves of poorly equipped Chinese foot soldiers with bolt-action rifles but simple, deadly accurate mortars drove back U.S. and United Nations forces in Korea. In Vietnam, the humiliation was even worse—B-52 carpet-bombing couldn't repel an army of bicycle-riding infantry hiding in jungles.

The objective of terrorists is not to bring an industrial nation to its knees. Their plan is to bomb and kill in unexpected and unpredictable places to create chaos and incite fear, demoralize, fuel more bickering in U.S. politics and drain our resources. They can't be stopped. They planted a mass killer in U.S. Army ranks at Fort Hood. They ticketed an underwear bomber on an airliner. One of their double agents blew up a roomful of unsuspecting CIA agents.

If unsophisticated, media-hungry, uninvited gatecrashers can't be stopped by the Secret Service from slipping into a heavily guarded White House state dinner, terrorists are a cinch to make it past our best defenses.

Dozens of committees and subcommittees of Congress are scrambling to hold more hearings and investigations. Air travelers face ratcheted-up airport screenings. More spending on intelligence systems is down the road. More blame fixing. More politicians strutting for the TV cameras.

Isn't this getting tiresome? We went through this after 9/11—and terrorists still have us reeling.

One lesson learned. The more terrorists we kill, the more volunteers line up to fill the empty ranks.

What mission is this accomplishing?




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