The liquidation of Osama bin Laden is a cause for full-throated national celebration. It must also be the occasion for a redirection of our efforts to wage and win what has been misnamed the war on terrorism. At last, we must recognize the struggle we are in for what it is - the war for the Free World - and begin taking allthe steps necessary to win it, not just some of them.
For starters, let’s consider some of the areas in which lessons already can be learned in light of what is now known about the takedown of al Qaeda’s leader:
- Ferreting out bin Laden’s safe haven in Abbottabad, Pakistan, is the latest affirmation of the importance of human intelligence. While various technical means of monitoring his courier’s communications and movements played a role, in the end, it appears there really is no substitute for old-fashioned spying and tradecraft. The need to correct continuing - and in some cases acute - shortfalls in this area should feature prominently in the upcoming confirmation hearings for the outgoing and incoming CIA directors, Secretary of Defense-designate Leon Panetta and Gen. David H. Petraeus, respectively.
- That imperative is especially pressing when foreign “liaison” services are as manifestly unreliable as is now indisputably true of Pakistan’s double-dealing intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Ever since Jimmy Carter’s Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner set about dismantling U.S. “humint” capabilities - and especially since Sept. 11 - America has relied to a great and unwise degree on information and agents supplied by others.
The fact that the Pakistanis could not be apprised of the operation that took out bin Laden until after it was over - to say nothing of the manner in which he was “hiding” in a million-dollar compound behind 12-foot walls in close proximity to some of Pakistan’s key military installations - tells us everything we need to know about the untrustworthiness of our “ally” and the extent to which it is working with our foes.
These insights come, moreover, on the heels of published reports last week that Pakistan’s prime minister and the director of the ISI paid a visit to Afghan President Hamid Kharzi. In its course, they are said to have pressed him to cut ties with the United States and partner instead with their country and its ally, China.
Such contemptuous behavior toward us reflects, in part at least, the calculation in Islamabad (and doubtless elsewhere) that the United States is a declining power that need not be feared because it lacks the will to punish its enemies and cannot be counted upon to protect its friends. Bin Laden’s liquidation is an important corrective to such portentous impressions. It must be reinforced and built upon as a matter of the utmost national importance.
- The proficiency of our armed forces in executing the kill-or-capture orders for Osama bin Laden should be a source of pride for all Americans. The fact that it was done without loss of any U.S. personnel makes the performance all the more extraordinary. Press reports served up in the wake of the bin Laden mission to the effect that special forces teams and their CIA paramilitary counterparts perform such feats on a daily basis only underscores the high quality of these units and their value to the nation.
Such proficiency comes at a price, though. “Freedom is not free.” Yet we increasingly are trying to defend America without making the sustained investment that requires.
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