David Warren on Iraq and the WOT:
The reality is that the Bush administration now finds itself in the position of the one adult in a room full of unhappy children. The adult carries responsibilities that none of the children fully understand. A mortal threat presents itself to adult and children alike, but only the adult appreciates this. He must find a way to proceed in spite of the children's very active non-cooperation.
I realize this is not a flattering account of the spectacle of the "United Nations" at work, but it is unfortunately true. And it is the most useful analogy I have found to guess how the Bush administration must proceed, given the nature of its actual problem -- an enemy vowed to the destruction of the West, which will stop at nothing, and must soon be armed with unimaginably lethal weapons and nearly undetectable methods for delivering them.
My impression from speaking with several administration, especially Pentagon, insiders, and by observing what one can discover of the extension of U.S. operations overseas (through the securing of basing and landing rights and other joint agreements), is that we should expect the field struggle against international terrorism to disappear off our television screens. The media have been discovered to be an enemy, pure and simple, and no attempt to brief or include them in operations makes any sense. Indeed, shaking off media attention is now intrinsic to the strategy.
Moreover, it has been discovered that for both political and tactical reasons, it is counter-productive to build up forces in any one location. Since this is necessary to full-scale invasions, full-scale invasions have to go. They only give the enemy a chance to prepare his resistance, whether directly or indirectly.
U.S. troop, navy and air force deployments are now entirely to a network of remarkably small, numerous, almost portable bases across what in Pentagon jargon is called "the arc of instability" -- which is to say, wherever there are weak governments or rogue regimes, not only in the Middle East, but in Central Asia, South-east Asia, Africa and Latin America. And technological innovation is likewise being focused upon improving the ability to strike suddenly "out of the clear blue sky", then disappear.
There are some resemblances to the ancient piracy wars, or frontier wars, but really, nothing like it before in history.
davidwarrenonline.com |
