Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Wishful Thinking Doesn't Cut It

Of course Hillary Clinton has taken responsibility for the recent deaths in Libya due to inadequate security at the consulate.  It falls under the domain of the State Department of which she is the head.

This is no great brave action on her part - taking one for the team. But you can expect she and Bill have extracted a pound of flesh in the process of finally owning up.

The question of what the President knew and when still hasn't been answered.  No one who knows the inner workings of the White House believes for one minute that the President didn't know the truth about what happened within 24 hours at most.  Not one.  If by some stretch of credibility he really didn't know,  someone didn't do their job.  Quite possibly him.

More worrisome than that is the floundering now going on about what to do when the culprits are located. Some realities must be faced.  One, terrorism, be it the Taliban or al Qaeda, is alive and well.  Two, Islam extremists hate us and will do all within their power to destroy us.  Three.  They don't care a whit about President Obama what's more love him.

The question seems to be if retaliation is worth the risk.  The thinking is it would only draw attention to what is a growing threat rather than one contained.  It could deter efforts to build a counter terrorism (I though terrorism was on its heels) network in the region.

This isn't even a matter of leading from behind.  It's a matter of denying reality.  If we give them a pass it won't deter them, it will embolden them.  It's been shown time and time again.

Four Americans have been killed in a planned terrorist attack.  We've been threatened that if we retaliate they will multiply attacks tenfold.  No one in the region is standing with us in indignation because the region is rife with the terrorists.

They are not going to go away.  They are one step ahead of us all over the region.  Taking out one man did not dissemble an ideology.  Wishful thinking doesn't trump truth.

When those responsible are identified and located they should be eliminated.  If they are going to kill ours, we will kill them.  That will at least get their attention.  This is what they know and view as strength.  People who are willing to blow themselves up and attempt to murder 14 year old girls, regardless of which club they belong to,  because of differences of opinion are not going to bow to coddling.

They kill.  They understand killing.  We should accommodate them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Another thought-provoking post, and where I agree with your sense of fairness in doling out an equal measure of justice to these extremist, cannot help but wonder if a stronger presence (President Reagan comes to mind) was in the White House if these folks would be more wary of the consequences before they planned these attacks, let alone carry them out