SHOCK AND AWE

Anyone who read Michael Shceuer’s Sunday editorial, “Break out the shock and Awe,” was treated to a polar bear swim in the icy waters of the CIA’s think tank. The basic premise was that covert operations alone are not enough to win the war on terror. What’s needed is the full force of the American military.

Shceuer, a CIA veteran who headed up the first Osama bin Laden unit and helped create and run its rendition program, wrote, among other things, “Simply and callously put, covert forces cannot kill the number of enemies that require killing,” and, “... victory is only possible through the use of massive, largely indiscriminate military force.” In other words, if the enemy happens to be deeply imbedded in the civilian population, as is the case in the Middle East, killing them will certainly require killing tens of thousands of innocent civilians in the bargain. Scheuer doesn’t mention any other options.

I’m not qualified to comment on the military efficacy of Scheuer’s plan, but I am horrified by the complete absence of compassion or moral doubt. Have we so completely lost our way that we are willing to engage in genocide in order to secure our safety? And how safe would we be? How could we be sure we got them all? What if some of them escaped ... to France, let’s say. Would we then have to bomb France? And what if some were able to make it to America? Would we have to bomb Cleveland? Where would it end? Wouldn’t it always be – as it was in Viet Nam, as it is in Iraq – that victory is just around the corner? If we can only kill a few thousand more of these godless bastards, that will be the end of it, we’ll finally be out of this mess. Semper phi! Stay the course.

I am not naïve. I know there are fanatics out there who drool at the thought of American streets littered with American dead. And quite frankly, some part of me wants to believe that someone in the government is working non-stop to prevent that from happening. I’m just hoping it’s Colin Powell and not Charlie Manson.

a foot on either side