Wage war on terror more effectively
My prayer is that President Obama will use the termination of the hunt for Osama bin Laden to pivot U.S. strategy in order to fight the war on terrorism effectively.
I had the privilege recently to watch the commissioning of Army, Marine and Naval officers upon their graduation from college. To see the grave enthusiasm of these brave young men and women and to share the pride and concern of their parents was a sobering inspiration. These new officers and their parents represent the most genuine patriotism of our country.
Their courage, commitment and sacrifice should not be squandered on ineffective strategy. We cannot “reason” with terrorists who think that they will be rewarded in heaven for killing innocent men, women and children in order to advance their twisted, violent, political agenda.
We cannot reshape thousands of year-old primitive tribal cultures of Afghanistan, Yemen or even Libya with the blood of our most courageous children. Most of them are barbarians who place little value on individual lives.
We need to combine maximum investment in stealthy accumulation of human intelligence, combine it with the most sophisticated surveillance technologies deployed in these wilderness regions, then apply special strike forces to surgically remove terrorists who have no other purpose in life and death than to kill peaceful people with whom they politically disagree.
Use the event of delayed execution of justice on Osama bin Laden to remove our ground troops from the incredibly punishing patrols in regions where the Afghan president threatens us that he will join the Taliban and where Pakistanis take our foreign aid but help to hide bin Laden. Pinpoint our strikes against terrorists where they plot, train and arm themselves spread out around the world.
A journalist Steve Huntley said, “If nearly 10 years of nation building at the cost of thousands of U.S. casualties and billions of dollars hasn’t put it on the path to modern nationhood, how will the sacrifice of more Americans’ lives and financial treasure do the job?”
Now is the time to change our strategy.
Sen. Chris Lauzen
25th District
Aurora