While the original Authorization tethered the war to those directly or indirectly responsible for 9/11, the new language authorizes “an armed conflict with al-Qaida, the Taliban, and associated forces,” as “those entities continue to pose a threat to the United States and its citizens.”We don’t need a wider war. We need a narrower and quieter one, a war where we take out terrorists and no one even knows. A war where a bearded bomber suddenly turns around and wonders, "Hey, where's Achmed? He never spends this this much time with the goats..."
We need to narrow our scope to military assistance for those nations who want our help and are willing to shed their own blood, not ours. Our military is uniquely suited to such light footprints, military assistance, and silent operations.
The proposal is a big expansion of executive authority, giving the president the ability to “use all necessary and appropriate force” against those terrorist groups he decides are U.S. enemies. (Wired)Executive authority? He already has it. Like any authority, if a president abuses it and brings negative attention on us, congress could take that authority away. That is how our system of checks and balances works. It is far superior to a new and expanded open-ended war on terror, which legal expert Karen Greenberg rightly calls “terrorism creep.”
Gitmo: A Model Prison
Here is where I part company with the article:
“But the administration’s stated antipathy to the new authorization makes sense when considering a major chunk of the proposal would keep Guantanamo Bay open practically forever.”We should keep Guantanamo open forever. We should turn it into a model prison to house international criminals, invite in the EU, citizens of the world, the UN and the International Red Cross. We could even invite in the International Criminal Court with their powdered wigs for the entertainment value. But seriously, we need a venue outside US and European territory where we can prosecute dangerous international terrorists and other criminals who prey upon humanity.
In this brave new world of supranational criminal gangs and terror networks, we need a standing Nuremburg Trial, transparent and open to the world. Establish an international legal framework and we could have a serious way to deal with the illiberal forces that threaten civilization. We should accommodate European sensibilities and strive to legitimize Gitmo as a kind of Spandau Prison for the new millennium. I don't care if the Euros oppose the death penalty. I'll settle for life in prison for convicted global murderers. This will only work within an internationally-agreed upon framework.
Cut theAfPak Gordian Knot
There are two reasons we haven't kicked double-dealing Pakistan to the curb. They have nukes, and we need their help to prosecute the war in Afghanistan. They grant us overfly rights needed to get from our gulf bases to landlocked Afghanistan, and we also do a lot of overland resupply from Pakistan.
Leave Afghanistan to sink back into it's corruption and violence, and we no longer need Pakistan. Let China have a go.
What do you think?
Further Reading:
Reason – Steve Chapman
Leslie Gelb – Mission Accomplished
Max Boot - Bin Laden's Death Changes Little
