Division in the Persian Gulf War,
offered his blunt assessment on
the mission and the strategy
confronting the United States and
its allies in an e-mail exchange with a cadet at West Point, where
McCaffrey teaches.
The exchange took place September 19 -- a little more than a
week after the deadliest terror attacks on U.S. soil. McCaffrey
and others have since distributed the e-mail widely to friends and
associates in the national security community.
McCaffrey told CNN he is not displeased the exchange became
public, because he is eager to articulate the likely multi-faceted
course of action.
McCaffrey identified multiple objectives -- to increase domestic
security, build a strong coalition and finally "take the gloves off
and use integrated military power to find, fix and destroy"
terrorist organizations.
He told the cadet, "We are going to
disrupt these people through preemptive
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 pound 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," the e-mail message
read.
McCaffrey went on to say: "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 surveil 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."
McCaffrey said the military component would 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."
The retired general said there would need to be substantial and
costly efforts to reduce the "environmental factors" that feed
"extremist madness."
That would include "dramatically increased" international aid to
address the poverty of Palestinians, Afghans, Sudanese and
others, he said.
A U.S. military official who was shown McCaffrey's comments
said they were the "insights of a very smart guy."
Another official said they do not contain any national secrets, but
they do accurately reflect the strategy the United States has
adopted.
In the words of this official: "It's the plan."
cnn.com |
