reflectivepundit

Afghanistan and Iraq: The Cost of the Forgotten Wars and Al Qaeda

By Brigitte L. Nacos

In a 2004 videotape message, Osama bin Laden boasted that it was easy to provoke the U.S., “lure it into perdition,” and inflict “human, financial, and political losses on America.” More importantly, he threatened that “[w]e are continuing to make America bleed to the point of bankruptcy, by God’s will.”

Certainly, the endless fight against bin Laden’s Al Qaeda, the terrorist group’s Taliban allies, and a host of other warlords of old and new jihadi cells has weakened America’s financial muscles. The fiscal situation of the United States has deteriorated in the years after the 9/11 attacks—in large part because of the horrendous costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While news of those two wars have all but disappeared from the front pages and seem of little interest to the American public, the total cost of the Iraq and Afghan wars have surpassed the $1 trillion mark and are rising steadily. According to a recent count by the National Priorities Project, “[t]o date, the total cost of war that has been allocated by Congress is $1.05 trillion, with $747to Iraq and $299 to Afghanistan.” But there is is now a reversal in the spending for the two wars in that more is spent for the Afghan war than for the Iraq deployment. As USA TODAY reported, “Pentagon spending in February [2010], the most recent month available, was $6.7 billion in Afghanistan compared with $5.5 billion in Iraq.” In other words, the two wars combined cost the American taxpayers $12.2 billion in one single month! 

The question is: for what?

Iraq, at least, seems to be at a stage that allows further troop withdrawal and disengagement—although there is hardly a day without lethal political violence somewhere in the country.

Afghanistan looks like a bottomless hole that swallows $billions and $billions without changes for the better. It was telling that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the commander of U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan, characterized the situation in the Afghan war as a draw between coalition forces and insurgents during an interview with Jeffrey Brown of PBS the other day. This is an excerpt from the transcript of that conversation on the PBS NewsHour:

Thoughts on the Failed Times Square Car-Bomb

By Brigitte L. Nacos

Color-Coded Terror Alerts: Since 9/11, the terrorism threat level of New York City has been orange for high. Obviously, there is no correlation between the alert status and the prevention of or preparedness for terrorist strikes. Yet, for whatever reason, the Department of Homeland Security has not gotten around to either drop or revamp the nonsensical, color-coded terrorism alert system that was put in place and exploited by the Bush administration to hype strategically timed threat alerts and thereby strengthen the president’s public approval . If it were strictly used to inform police departments and other agencies involved in terrorism prevention and preparedness, the system could have some value. But issuing such alerts for public consumption does not serve any purpose. After all, regular citizens do not have any idea what to do and what not to do when the threat assessment stands at one of five colors--green for low, blue for guarded, yellow for elevated, orange for high, and red for severe threat.

Fortunately, New York City’s Police Department has exemplary counterterrorism capabilities and, as the failed bombing demonstrated, post-incident investigative skills as well. Most important, this time around, the great degree of cooperation between often competing law enforcement agencies caught the would-be bomber in record time. Yes, the no-fly list needs changes assuring that new entries find their way immediately to airlines and all airport security stops--but nothing should overshadow the superb work of New York City police and FBI.

Former Governor Pataki’s wisdom: preventing terrorism is success. When asked during an appearance on Fox whether the failed bombing attempt could be seen as a victory, the former governor of New York, George Pataki, said, “I don’t think you call it victory. I think victory would be being able to prevent these before they get to that point where you have a loaded van in Times Square. I think it’s more a question of lucky.” Ah, well. Perhaps George Pataki, who is rumored to prepare for a presidential bid in 2012, forgot that he was the governor of New York—and his good friend Rudy Giuliani the mayor of New York City, when terrorists flew two airlines into the World Trade Center. I assume that success, according to his measuring stick, should have been their roles in prevention of the 9/11 attacks.  

However unsatisfied with what transpired at Times Square Pataki and other Republican critics may be, they surely know that not even the best laid counterterrorism plans will prevent all attempts to commit this sort of violence. Even Israel’s excellent terrorism prevention measures are not fool proof.

Virtual Recruitment and the Myth of the Lone Wolf Terrorist: Someone like Faisal Shahzad who tried to explode a home-made car-bomb at Times Square was more likely subject of virtual recruitment rather than old-fashioned personal enlistment. Reports that he listened to and read the extremist sermons of American-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi as he underwent a process of radicalization, are hardly surprising. After all, the shooting at Fort Hood last November was the work of  Nidal Hassan, an Army doctor, who was familiar with al-Aulaqui’s sermons and corresponded with the now resident of Yemen. In short, while Shahzad may have planned and carried out the bombing attempt all by himself, he was no lone wolf but rather inspired by others in the virtual community of hate and violence. This is not only true for extremist jihadis but literally all other religious and secular terrorists as well—here in the United States and around the world.