Re: Fwd: Peace Rally

[PhilCooper@webtv.net (P C)]

Would like to share the following with you if I might.

Phil Cooper

War Without End 

Following is an e-mail exchange that occurred Sept. 19 between a senior
cadet at West Point and one of his professors, retired Gen. Barry
McCaffrey. From 1996-2001, Gen. McCaffrey served as the director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy. He earned three Purple Hearts in
Vietnam and led the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division in the Persian
Gulf War.

Cadet: Could you describe what you think the United States should
consider as an "endstate" on the matter of dealing with terrorists?
Eradication, containment, or some other option? And what would the
United States consider the literal and figurative center of gravity?

Gen. McCaffrey: Great issue to consider . . . we have too liberally
borrowed from the language of science to deal with the imperfections of
political and security analysis. There will be no endstate . . . we
will, if successful, manage this chronic threat to our survival,
economy, and self-confidence by dramatically lowering the risk. We will
build a series of defensive programs that will make a multiple order of
magnitude increase in our day-to-day security. Second, we will form a
coalition based on common danger. Much of the globe will join us to
leverage foreign intelligence services and security forces to fight
these FTO's forward in the battle area. Finally, we will at last take
the gloves off and use integrated military power to find, fix, and
destroy these organizations.
We are going to disrupt these people thru pre-emptive attack . . . we
will deceive them, we will run psyops on them . . . at selected points
and times they will be killed suddenly, in significant numbers, and
without warning. Tomahawk missiles, 2000 lb laser guided weapons dropped
from B2's or F22's at very high altitude, remote control booby traps,
blackmail, and at places . . . small groups of soldiers or Seals will
appear in total darkness . . . blow down the doors and kill them at
close range with automatic weapons and hand grenades. We will find their
money and freeze it. We will arrest their front agents. We will operate
against their recruiting and transportation functions. We will locate
their training areas and surveill or mine them. We will isolate them
from their families. We will try to dominate their communication
function and alternately listen, jam, or spoof it. We will make their
couriers disappear. If we can find out how they eat, or play, or receive
rewards, or where they sleep . . . we will go there and kill them by
surprise.
The military component will be a supporting but lesser aspect of a
strategy that will be based fundamentally on diplomatic and economic
leverage to compel cooperation with international law. Of prime
importance, we must reduce the environmental factors that feed this type
of extremist madness . . . foreign aid must be dramatically increased to
address the misery and poverty of the Palestinians, the Afghans, the
Sudanese and others.
We must also not be unwilling to confront the State sponsors of terror .
. . Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea . . . none can be allowed to
provide the base for another sickening strike against our civilian
population or our Allies. Conventional military power will be used at
the end of the day to place at risk those states who present a direct
threat to our security. If deterrence does not work with coherent
political and economic measures in support of a threat capability . . .
then their political will must be shattered with overwhelming violence
directed at their armed forces and the political decision-makers.
The big challenge will be to organize America to protect our
transportation, our economic activity, our entertainment, etc., with
minimal invasion of our privacy and our free movement. We will constrain
domestic law enforcement through the protection of our Judicial System.
We will ensure the unfettered operation of a free press. We will have to
be zealous to protect the Bill of Rights and the dignity and safety of
foreigners living among us during this war.
We can do all of this. We have no option. The American people will
depend on you and your fellow soldiers to step forward and stand between
us and the barbarians