Terrorism and President Obama

President Obama has tried a different philosophical approach to dealing with terrorism than the previous administration. His administration has tried to reach out to the Muslim world in hopes that this would make us seem less threatening and hopefully reduce the possibility of another attack on our nation. Unfortunately, this approach will not benefit us in the long run. Warfare is still a largely ritualistic event in the Islamic world. Confident power is more appreciated than any attempt at being a conciliatory foe.

It is hard to say if our continued struggle with Islamic Fundamentalists has evolved under the Obama presidency or, if his policies have led directly to a change of tactics used by our enemies. We do know however; since he has taken office, we have had three terrorist attacks on American soil. The attack on Fort Hood was successful and the other two were not. This is not a prevention percentage that can be sustained over time. We suffered no attacks under the previous administration after 9/11. So, have our enemies tactics evolved or is it merely a coincidence that the present administration has seen three attacks on our shores?

To his credit, the President is aggressively pursuing Al Quaida and Taliban operatives in the tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is doing this primarily through the use of drone strikes. An unintended consequence of using drones is the animosity that technological warfare creates in the Islamic world. As I've said, warfare is still a largely ritualistic human endeavor with Muslims. Many of them despise the use of drones and view their use as a form of cowardly attack. Might it be possible that the use of these drones have led to increased efforts to attack us?

For our part, we will soon have to realize that warfare is still a man on man event. Our soldiers know this but the rest of our nation's populace has been insulated from the violent nature of combat and I believe, we may have lost our ability to realistically confront our foes. The only way that we will be able to defeat Islamic Fundamentalism is to look our opponent in the eye and destroy him. The judicious use of raw physical and not purely technological power is the only thing that our enemy understands. Terrorist cells or Taliban operatives need to learn that they will be physically hunted down and eliminated wherever they may attempt to conduct operations against our national interests or on our soil.

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