As I write this Congress is debating authorizing use of force by the president of the United States. This is not a declaration of war, but a temporary blank check given to President Bush to take whatever actions he deems necessary to attack Bin Laden and his group Al-Qaeda. It is both strategically lacking and politically unwise. The current resolution is the equivalent of the 1965 Gulf of Tonkin resolution. The lack of a Declaration of War left Johnson with a military action of questionable Constitutionality and showed a lack of unity in the country behind the war. The responsibility and accountability for the war was placed solely on the back of the president, and both he and the country suffered for it. Congressional Democrats were allowed to walk away from he President and the war with little political damage. Whereas President Johnson and the Democrats in Congress were elected in a landslide and controlled both Houses, President Bush is a minority president with a closely divided Congress. He has far less political capital to draw on to sustain any long and bloody conflict. Should the conflict take more than a few weeks and cost many American lives, the presidents political opponents will undermine our efforts. Opposition to the war already exists on both the left and on the right. While all Americans are devastated by Tuesday's attacks, many of these progressives, libertarians, and populists sympathize with some of the positions of Al Qaeda. They believe that the US brought this attack on itself through its involvement in the Middle East: the promotion of trade and western ideals in the region, support for regimes that repress both civil liberties and Islamists, and our support for Israel. The administration must marginalize these elements as clearly as the FDR administration did the isolationists after Pearl Harbor. To do this, Bush will need not only the support of a vast majority of the population, but the full backing of Congress with a declaration of war. Otherwise, we risk a repeat of the divisions caused by the Korean or Vietnam Wars.
Currently, the Congressional authorization is limited to going after Al-Qaeda and those people groups and nations that helped in the specific attack. Those who crafted this compromise legislation failed to take into account the fact1 that many groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah work with Al-Qaeda and that these various groups all have state sponsors. Do we really want to enter a conflict with all these terrorist groups and some of their protectors, Libya Syria Iran Iraq and/or Afghanistan, without a true declaration of war?
More than any other war in recent memory, this conflict will need to be fought not only abroad but also at home. To do so, we will need a real declaration of war and a full understanding by our political leaders of the full range of the threat. The home front fight will not simply be one of moral or production, it will be against enemies hiding in our country. During the Cold War, we had ideological opponents and spies at home. Today, we have a real continuing threat of terrorism at home. 8 years ago, when terrorists we let into the country car-bombed the World Trade Center, we were forewarned, but lacked the resolve or consensus to act. When a gunman opened fire on CIA headquarters, we should have responded. There is a large fifth column in this country of Islamist terrorists, their support base, and sympathizers. While the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the US are either patriotic citizens or thankful refugees and loyal immigrants, there is a significant minority hiding in their midst. The US is the most open and tolerant country on earth. Given the fact that the terrorists who committed Tuesday's attacks were accepted by and trained in America, it should be abundantly clear that the Islamist are exploiting this perceived weakness. Much like communist countries were able to take advantage of what they called the capitalist desire to sell the rope with which it is to be hung, Islamists use our liberal ideas against us. According to the AP, two of the 19 hijackers went to US war colleges. Additional members learned how to fly airliners at flight schools in the US. How many other terrorists are there being trained in our facilities?
We have tolerated the growth of groups sympathetic to and who act as unofficial spokesmen for terrorist faction like Hamas, Hezbollah, and even Al-Qaeda. Until recently, we have allowed organizations to fundraise directly for militants or indirectly through relief funds for the families of "martyrs to Islam." While some of these American front groups like IAP and WISE have been closed down, others like CAIR, the ADC, and the AMC have been able to mainstream themselves by claiming to be civil-rights organization. The irony of having the very groups that supported the Islamists, who have attacked America and cast aspersion on the Arab and Muslim communities claim to be the protectors of loyal Americans, is appalling. Unfortunately, the media, which should know better, has invited members of these groups to be the spokespeople for all Muslims and Arabs. Worse, the administration has accepted the characterization of Islamist groups as mainstream. We have a responsibility to all Americans, but especially loyal Arabs and Muslims to weed out the terrorist sympathizers. This should be easy; one need only look at the words and actions of several prominent groups. We should not only treat these groups as enemy agents, but also look into their patrons and contributors. Anyone who gave money to the families of those who died killing Americans or Israelis abroad should be considered enemies of the US. Any American or resident Alien who continues to give money, should be considered a traitor, for aiding and abetting the enemies of the US in time of war. However, for these precautionary public safety and national security measures to be implemented, we must have a formal declaration of war. Already, the INS may be forced to let go suspect picked up soon after the bombing, because the suspects have stalled the investigations. While Constitutionally limiting the rights of suspected traitors, spies, and enemy agents in this war will be unpopular with civil libertarians, the truth is that we must either more fully investigate reasonable suspects, or suspend some civil liberties of all Americans. The requirement for this may not be clear today, but it will become painfully obvious once retaliatory terrorist acts occur in the US and allied countries, once we prosecute this war.
Fighting the war abroad will not be easy. We have the support of NATO and Israel in fighting the terrorists. However, the amount of support we will get in the region from the Muslim countries is debatable. Pakistan has promised to allow the US to use its airspace so long as we do not use ground troops in Pakistan or involve Israel. Neither of these conditions should be acceptable. Targeting bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban from the air will be difficult, and after 25 years of warfare, Afghanistan has virtually no infrastructure to hit. Moreover, Pakistani involvement in these groups should not be overlooked. There are over 1 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and these formed the Taliban army. Moreover, according to intelligence reports given to the press, Al-Qaeda has a large presence in Pakistan, especially Peshwar. Either the US, or the unsympathetic Pakistani military will have to clean up these areas. Afghanistan and Libya have made it clear that it will fight any country that joins the US. As I write this, the positions of Iran and Syria, remain unclear, but given their history of anti-American terrorism and support for Islamist Terrorist groups, we will probably have to contend with these countries as well.
The conditions set froth by Pakistan and other Muslim countries that the US not involve Israel cannot be followed if the US is to adequately attack Islamist terrorists. While Al-Qaeda has limited itself to attacking the US and non-Islamist regimes in the region, the target for many of its allies and constituents remains Israel. Terrorist manuals and testimony from the World Trade Center Trials clarified the true nature of our enemies to those who cared to look.
The court evidence shows how Al-Qaeda is an umbrella organization that includes a wide range of Islamist groups, including Hezbollah (Lebanon), Islamic Jihad (Egypt), the Armed Islamic Group (Algeria), as well as a raft of Iraqis, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Afghans and Jordanians. Each of its constituent groups has the capability to carry out its own independent recruiting and operations. The groups coordinate through Al-Qaeda's "Shura Council," a kind of board of directors that includes representatives from the many groups. The groups meet on a regular basis in Afghanistan to review and approve proposed operations. Most of them have maintained close relationships with each other since the end of the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets. They know each other well and work together efficiently. We learned from the trial that when operations in one place are shut down, the rest of the network soldiers on, virtually unaffected. Even if bin Ladin himself were to be killed, this Islamist network would survive and continue to expand, sustained by its ideological adhesion. Islamism is the glue that keeps these groups together, and fired up.2Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and Hezbollah have been at war with Israel for decades and are actively supported by Iran and Syrian. On September 11th, Israel's war became ours, much like England's war became ours after Pearl Harbor.
There are those who blame the attack of last Tuesday on our support for Israel and say that we would do better to end this provocation. While the stated goals of bin Laden and Al-Qaeda show that there is no factual basis for the claim, it needs to be answered by the President and Congress. The US course of action after Pearl Harbor was not to accept Japan's negotiating positions of November 1941: an end of the oil and war-material embargo, cessation of support to China, and demilitarization of US outposts. We counterattacked and defeated Japan after 4 years because it was the only moral and just course of action. We also declared war on Germany and Italy after they had joined Japan, even though they had not directly attacked us. Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad have all called for Jihad against the US and have been responsible for the deaths of Americans in the past. We must now bring the full force of the American military against all of the constituent parts of Al-Qaeda. Those Americans, who propose that the US give into bin Laden, whether they are David Duke, Harry Browne, or Noam Chomsky, are aiding the goals of the enemies of the US. Those Muslim countries that threaten to withdraw support if the US allows Israel to act have made it clear that they make common cause with our enemies and lack the will to join our crusade. We cannot ignore the involvement of Islamic Jihad Hamas and Hezbollah in Al-Qaeda's attack on the US, just because some of the Arab countries agree with many of the goals and means of these groups. We need to work with Israel to destroy these terrorist groups now, to protect Americans, Israelis, and Europeans. While many of our NATO allies parrot Arab concerns, the fact that bin Laden sought to gas the EU Parliament this February3 , should make them realize the threat they face.
Because of the unusual character of our enemies, any war on terrorism will have to be conducted far differently than previous American conflicts. While battles against those patrons of terrorism that stand in our way, like Libya and Afghanistan, may be conventional, the attacks on the terrorists cannot. Simply bombing them from 30,000 feet will not be enough. The terrorist groups regularly commit assassinations, and there are reports that one of the hijacked planes was mean to be used to kill President Bush. We need to fight in kind and decapitate the leadership of these organizations as part of a wider effort. The executive order against US involvement with assassination must be rescinded. Moreover, we will have to use local support in the countries that harbor terrorists. It is likely that we will end up indirectly supporting opposition groups in Libya and Afghanistan. We should make support open and help these groups overthrow unfriendly regimes. Finally, we cannot overlook the possible use of ground troops to secure targets and protect allies.
Given the size and scope of this conflict, it should not be entered lightly. The resolve accorded by a Congressional Declaration of War is necessary for our present actions, and the many battles ahead. I urge President Bush to follow Franklin Roosevelt's example and walk into Congress, explain that a state of war exists between the US and our allies and multiple terrorist groups and their patron counties and ask that they Declare War immediately.
1 Testimony by Steven Emerson to the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims' Hearing on International Terrorism and Immigration Policy, 1/25/2000
2 S. Emerson and D. Pipes; Terrorism on Trial; Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2001.
3 Bin Laden British cell planned Gas Attack on European Parliament; The Daily Telegraph, September 17, 2001