RESPONSES TO TERRORISM
R. A. Schultz
Responses to terrorism may be divided into two very different philosophies, reactive and proactive.
REACTIVE RESPONSE: This is the classic law enforcement response wherein a terrorist act is treated as a crime. A crime has been committed and a reaction is necessary. We seek to gather evidence to identify the perpetrators and further evidence which will convict those perpetrators of their crime. We then seek to track down the perpetrators and capture them, never forgetting to advise them of their rights pursuant to Miranda (which don't exist in spider holes in Afghanistan or Iraq), transport them back to the United States, and hold civilian trials for them as criminals, with all the rights of American citizens accorded to them. This response was employed during the Clinton administration and was a dismal failure; e. g., we didn’t have sufficient evidence to convict Osama bin Laden of a crime, so we didn’t accept multiple offers to capture and deliver him to us. It was an even worse failure under the Obama administration.
PROACTIVE RESPONSE: This is the classic military response. We know they're out there. We seek to locate them and to develop intelligence as to their planned activities. Once we have located them and determined the likelihood that they are going to attack us, we kill them long before they can kill any of our citizens, or we capture them and detain them cages in Guantanamo or wherever. This had been the response that kept us in the United States free from massive casualty Islamofascist attacks since September 11, 2001. It works. It is the same doctrine that has worked for Israel since 1948. Hopefully, we are returning to it as we awake from the nightmare of the Obama administration.
A LEGENDARY ANECDOTE
As legend would have it the story has been widely told of the actions purportedly taken by troops under the command of then Brigadier General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing (later General of the Armies) in the Philippines just prior to World War I in suppressing a Muslim terrorist uprising. Pershing’s troops had captured fifty of the terrorists who were tied to posts for summary execution.
The Qur’an strictly forbids the consumption of pork or pork by-products by faithful Muslims. Eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, is to be instantly barred from paradise (and hence those 72 virgins!) and doomed to hell.
The American troops then slaughtered two pigs before the now horrified enemy combatants, dipped their bullets in the pigs’ blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the 50 by firing squad. The terrorists’ bodies were dumped into a large common grave and covered with pig blood and entrails. The 50th terrorist, who had witnessed the proceedings, was set free. It is reported that there was not another Muslim terrorist attack anywhere in the world for the next forty-two years.
Whether myth or reality, this story is a graphic illustration of the ultimate in truly pro-active counter-terrorism!
