arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

After the September 2001 terror attacks, we were faced with two options.

The first option was to look within ourselves, to attempt to understand what had happened and how it had occurred. We would examine not just the intelligence and security failures, but how our foreign and defense policies had provoked such rage against us. We would then invest heavily in intelligence and homeland defense, to make sure it would Never Happen Again?. We might launch surgical strikes against those who attacked us, but only when we had sufficient evidence of guilt or complicity and could be certain that collateral damage would be minimal or non-existent. Finally, we would re-tool our foreign policy to be less offensive to the Islamic world, encourage Israel to make more concessions to the Palestinians, and pull back our military from the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. Hopefully, this would remove any incentive for terrorism against the United States, and we could go on with our happy and peaceful lives.

I call this option ?withdrawal.? It is exactly what our enemies hoped that we would do.

The second option was to carry the fight to the enemy. We would take away their sanctuaries, force them to go deep underground, and hunt them to the ends of the Earth. We would undermine or overthrow governments that supported them. We would sever them from their networks of financial support, disrupt their planning, and arrest their leaders in the dark of night. We would humiliate and discredit them. Rather than wait for them to strike at our weak points, we would force them to confront our strength. We would draw them into battle, and slaughter them. We would sow discord and division amongst their ranks. Finally, we would bring the war to their homes, and kill them where they live.

I call this strategy ?engagement.? This is how we win wars.

Less than two years later, it is very clear which path we have chosen. Within a month of the terror strikes, we were bombing al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. Within two months, we had overthrown the Taliban government and forced the terrorists to hide in caves. Then we bombed the caves.

We proceeded to hunt down those who had escaped the onslaught. We seized their assets, and arrested their financial chief. We chased their chief of operations all over Pakistan, capturing him in a pre-dawn raid outside Islamabad. A photograph of him, handcuffed and humiliated, was beamed around the globe.

We launched a campaign to liberate Iraq, and thousands of Bin Laden disciples were urged to come to the defense of Baghdad. But terrorists armed with Kalishnikovs and RPGs were no match for laser-guided bombs and heavy armor. We slaughtered them by the thousands.

The surprising ease with which Coalition Forces took Baghdad has discredited our enemies and caused many of their would-be supporters to question their leadership. There are now well over 100,000 battle-tested US troops in the heart of Arab civilization, and all that our enemies have been able to do about it is launch an occasional sniper attack. At their current rate of assault, it will take about 800 years for them to take back Iraq.

In the meantime, the government of Syria has been ?convinced? to shut down the offices of Hamas and Hezbollah in their capital. Students demonstrating across Iran are no longer simply demanding reform?they are now calling for the death of ?Supreme Leader? Ayatollah Khameini. The US military is moving out of Saudi Arabia, because we no longer need those bases?and the House of Saud is beginning to feel a much cooler breeze blowing in from Washington.

Suddenly, the regional leaders appear very eager to discuss peace plans with Israel.

Al Qaeda has not remained quiet through all of this. Terrorist attacks have occurred in Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Jordan, Tunisia, and Morocco. But these countries are their home, not ours. By going on the offensive, we have seized the initiative and moved the front lines back to their neighborhood. Indeed, many of these recent terror attacks have killed more local Muslims than Westerners, creating animosity between the terrorists and the local populations.

But this is no time to rest on our laurels. This war is not over yet. We continue to hunt terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is still some fighting to be done in Iraq. And there are other havens that must be visited.

The peace process in Israel and Palestine must continue, but terrorists will be given no quarter. Syria must be further ?encouraged? to eliminate all support to Hamas and Hezbollah. Their puppets in Lebanon must do the same, and the training camps in the Bekaa Valley must be dismantled. The Palestinian Authority must begin to take responsibility for its own security, and purge terrorist influence from their government. The ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict is the single largest source of animosity in the Islamic world towards the United States. We will not achieve victory in this war until there is a reasonable level of peace and stability between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

We must also continue to express moral support for those who oppose the teetering theocracy in Teheran. The best possible outcome in Iran would be a bloodless revolution, where the people seize power and force the mullahs to step aside. Semi-democratic institutions already exist in that country, they merely need to be freed from the shackles of theocratic oversight. There is still hope that such an outcome can be achieved?but it could just as easily turn into a bloody mess. While foreign intervention would most likely undermine the legitimacy of any future Iranian government, we must be prepared to provide such assistance if it is requested. To do otherwise would constitute a betrayal.

We must remember that we are the good guys. We cannot continue to indefinitely support despotic regimes in the region simply because we have common strategic interests. We must encourage them to reform?or they can try their hand at ruling without our assistance. If we are viewed by the people of the region as an obstacle to reform, we will never win their hearts and minds.

Finally, the rebuilding of Iraq is critical. It will not be enough to restore Iraq to its prewar level of misery. It must become the civil and economic model for the rest of the Islamic world. This is not something we can do for the Iraqis?they must do the bulk of it themselves?but we can help (and are helping) to show them the way. This will give the Arab and Islamic peoples hope that a better future is possible. Given a choice between hope and death, most people will choose hope.

This is how we will win the peace.