Argue Strategy, Not Tactics!

US official: Drone kills senior al-Qaida militant in Pakistan

Targeted strike broke undeclared hiatus of patrols over tribal areas
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46063325/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/#.Txi4qoGwWmI

Yesterday, it was announced by a U.S. official that a Senior Operations Organizer for Al Qaeda, Aslam Awan, was killed in one of two drone strikes across the Pakistani border.  Ten days ago, intelligence identified the target in Miranshah, a border town in North Waziristan.  This strike ended a little discussed eight week break in drone attacks inside Pakistan.

As technology and policy collide, the President of the United States has faced numerous attacks on his prosecution of the war in Afghanistan and its neighbor to the east.  Some of these attacks have come from the right, whose hatred of Obama disallows any support for his foreign policy decisions.  These quips serve as a substantive display of the hypocrisy that has engulfed a party who started Bush’s Wars. 

More interesting and challenging are the attacks that POTUS faces from the left.  I have certainly been described in kind light as holding activist foreign policy beliefs, and in less glowing terms as hawkish, but the President today faces a challenge of executing policy, as opposed to creating it. 

W. authorized action across the border in 2009, shifting a policy of counting on a wavering Pakistani government to deal with the vicious Haqqani Network operating in the lawless tribal areas – a place where the European crafted border between Pakistan and Afghanistan means little.  President Obama is simply executing an established policy more effectively than his troubled predecessor.

Of course, this execution of policy begs the question – is this policy worth pursuing?  I certainly hold sympathy for those on the left who are tired of bombing people, regardless of how antiseptic it might appear from the nose-camera of a hellfire missile.  I, too, have seen the images of damaged civilian bodies posted in media outlets dedicated to showing us the true picture of war – and value the service those outlets provide.  I am also aware that no bomb will ever be smart enough to spare the innocent.  All that being said - I support both the policy of targeting elements of the Taliban in Pakistan and the method by which our President is executing on that mission.

Often when talking with people who hold contrary beliefs, I am perplexed by the notion that some feel we simply have no enemies in this world.  I simply cannot deny existence of an enemy, spurred on by years of inadequate American foreign policy and, yes, a healthy dose of religious extremism, which will never give up their quest to hit us where it hurts.  Maybe it is because I have been to where the USS Cole was bombed, or that I have a younger brother who has chosen to follow his flag, now stationed in northern Afghanistan.  It could be due to the days and weeks of news coverage I absorbed in September of 2001, and every day since.  Maybe it is because I would prefer a hellfire to kick in the door of a far-away hovel than the boots of my brothers and sister, many of whom are simply seeking money for college. This is a bell we cannot un-ring.  We are walking down a predictable path, however harrowing:  Republicans start wars and Democrats end (win) them.

If we want to reexamine our policy in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, let us have that conversation.  After a decade of war, it is probably high time we do.  What we should not do is attack our president for using the latest and greatest technology afforded to our armed forces.  Criticizing the tactical, as opposed to the strategic elements of our foreign policy is akin to saying that our troops should no longer use automatic weapons, lest a stray round find itself off target.  What’s more – it is the fight the left truly wants to have, and a fair fight at that.