Heading Down Israel’s Path
To: President George W. Bush
From: Patricia Koyce Wanniski
Re: Our New Hi-Tech War on Terror
Yes, Mr. President, I know you are probably still in a celebratory mood over the Republican victories on Election Day, and I add my best wishes to your success with the new Congress. I must say, though, that I am still distressed at the path our nation seems headed down in the war on terrorism and I wish you would find time to address this concern. I was struck earlier this week by the similarity between the missile strike which killed Al Qaeda leader Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi and the Israeli “surgical” strike against Hamas military leader Sheik Salah Shehada this past July. How depressing that the war on terror has come to such a pass. Although no innocent civilians were killed and the U.S. had the cooperation of the Yemeni government (neither of which was the case in the Israeli military action), it is only a matter of time before the U.S. misses with a Predator’s missile and takes out some poor civilians who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Let me make myself clear. I have no problem with the idea of executing Al Qaeda operatives. I appreciate the intention, but I worry about the method. Earlier use of the Predator was at least understandable since U.S. forces had already entered Afghanistan in order to overthrow the Taliban and find Osama bin Laden. I admit to being squeamish with regard to the idea of collateral damage, so easily dismissed by your Secretary of Defense as a necessary evil, during this very strange, new kind of warfare. Even though your administration is determined to treat Al Qaeda as “enemy combatants,” rather than career criminals or terrorists, I cannot believe that summary execution is ever a good idea. You must have noted, Mr. President, that we now have prominent American Jews who advocate killing the family members of suicide bombers and "automatically" blowing up Palestinian villages after every suicide bombing. Is this where we are headed?
According to press accounts, there was no direct link between al-Harethi and 9/11, or even the attack on the USS Cole that occurred just off the coast of Yemen, just that he was in charge of Al Qaeda operations in Yemen. If the U.S. had the cooperation of the government, why not arrest him and bring him to justice? Al Qaeda operatives are being arrested and tried all over the world. Why was al-Harethi different? Even the surviving Nazis, those most hated and hateful of all enemy combatants, got at least some semblance of due process and were tried as war criminals in a courtroom setting.
I wonder, Mr. President, what this means for us as a nation, if such hubris changes our character as a people. James Risen and Judith Miller note in Tuesday’s New York Times account that “the United States has kept up the pressure for Yemeni assistance even as the American military presence in nearby countries has expanded, reflecting the higher American priority on regional counterterrorism operations....The growing military presence so close to Yemen may have sent a message to the Yemeni government that the United States might act against terrorists inside its borders with or without its cooperation, and so could have helped persuade the Yemeni government to work with the Americans.”
In other words, the U.S. strong-armed the Yemenis. Such tactics are, I believe, self-defeating; it may be Pollyannish but I maintain that more can be achieved through friendship than by fear. Otherwise we simply make more enemies, and escalate the cycle of violence. Please do not follow the Israeli model of pre-emptive or surgical strikes. It is not successful. None of the citizenry in Israel can so much as wait for a bus or have a cup of coffee without the possibility of being blown to bits. I appreciate your determination to eradicate Al Qaeda, and the need to begin “a more aggressive phase of the American effort against terrorism.” But, please, I beg you, be very, very careful about what comes next. America depends on it.
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