" the Bush administration lacks a ...strategy for winning ..on terrorism"

[rodeodance]

------- Original Message --------
Subject: Progress Report: Combating Catastrophic Terror
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 08:10:53 -0700
From: American Progress Action Fund <[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
To: xxxx



October 27, 2005


NATIONAL SECURITY
Combating Catastrophic Terror

Four years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the Bush administration lacks a comprehensive strategy for winning the global war on terrorism. The 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy, which made unilateral military preventive war a centerpiece, has been discredited. The "National Strategy to Combat Terrorism was last published two and a half years ago, while the National Strategy to Combat WMD has not been updated in nearly three years." We are not yet winning the war on terror and we will not succeed without a comprehensive plan. A group of national security experts yesterday presented to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Combating Catastrophic Terror: A Security Strategy for the Nation, which rejects the administration's simplistic and misleading mantra: "We are fighting these terrorists with our military in Afghanistan and Iraq and beyond so we do not have to face them in the streets of our own cities." American Progress's Integrated Power strategy recognizes that "America's interests are best achieved through a multidimensional approach that spurns the false dichotomy between the concepts of 'hard' and 'soft' power." The American people deserve a thoughtful, comprehensive, long-term strategy that matches the complexity of the global struggle.

STRENGTHENING TACTICAL COUNTER-TERRORISM CAPABILITIES: The Bush administration has fallen short in eliminating terrorist cells, sponsors, sanctuaries, and WMD. Bureaucratic and legal obstacles created by the administration have impeded the implementation of the Baker-Cutler strategy for securing nuclear materials, which could fall into the hands of terrorists. The administration has made Iraq and Afghanistan its central fronts in the war on terror, but in each country, the security situation remains unstable. Iraq has become a "global assembly line" for terrorists and "the vast majority of Arabs killed in Iraq had never taken part in any terrorist activity prior to their arrival in Iraq." In Afghanistan, the Taliban and al Qaeda "are now working in a much more organized way." In order to succeed, the United States "must pursue a strategy for success in both countries with the long-term objective of empowering national and local leaders to maintain security and establish viable economies in accordance with law and democracy."

SHUTTING OUT TERROR, OPENING UP MINDS: An effective American strategy against terrorism must "defeat those who are unalterably committed to violence while preventing more people from being seduced by the terrorists' arguments." Vice President Cheney's campaign for torture -- exempting the CIA from the Senate's proposed anti-torture regulations -- is a step in the wrong direction. Our traditional alliances remained strained from the Iraq war, with a majority in Italy, Poland, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia opposed to troop presence in Iraq. "Any long-term strategy for dealing with militant extremism will require far greater solidarity in the West than exists now."

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT HOMELAND SECURITY: The federal government's tragically mismanaged response to Hurricane Katrina has left the public doubting that the nation is prepared for a terrorist attack. A Sept. 2005 NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 75 percent of the public believes the United States is "not adequately prepared" for a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack, and 68 percent believes we are not more safe now than we were before 9/11. The Bush administration has resisted calls to restore FEMA's Cabinet-level status, but "consequence management and reconstruction" need to be made a central focus of FEMA, so that the Department of Homeland Security can focus on terrorism prevention. "The federal government owes the American people a truly integrated program with a properly organized, funded, and supporter Department of Homeland Security and a domestic intelligence capability with appropriate oversight."

[opihimoimoi]

1. Its obvious Bush has never been up to snuff. He is not a Team leader

Never was...and in fact... never a member of a Team period...unless it was the cheerleading Team. TANG? He never showed up in the last year??

[ixion]

2. okay, one more time: you cannot declare war on an abstraction

e.g. 'terror'. Saying that you will eliminate 'terror' from the world is like saying you'll eliminate sorrow or depression or anything else. It simply isn't possible. And to give it credibility by allowing the concept of a 'war on terror' to continue in legitimate conversation will yield nothing positive in the long run.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. You nailed it: war on Some Drugs, Poverty, Cancer. Some progress no victor