Crosshairs - Military Matters in Review

Teddy Roosevelt updated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 when he said, "Speak softly, and carry a big stick," in a speech Sept. 2, 1901. The original doctrine warned European powers not to interfere in the Western Hemisphere, and it proclaimed that the upstart United States -- not fifty years old -- reserved the right to intervene in the domestic affairs of its neighbors to the south. Twelve days after Roosevelt's speech, President William McKinley was assassinated, and Roosevelt became president and chief enforcer of the doctrine. American presidents continued the Monroe-Roosevelt legacy all the way through the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962.

After the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001, President George Bush launched an even more important doctrine when he declared that if a country harbors or supports terrorists, the United States would hold it accountable. This became the focal point of The National Security Strategy of September 2002. That document says nothing about speaking softly; it announces to the world that the United States will take preemptive action any time it feels it should. And that is exactly what America is doing. Examples follow.

U.S. commanders had charged that Pakistani forces were not policing militants in Pakistan's remote border areas, which were possible hiding places for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahri. Consequently, U.S. and CIA UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) that patrol the frontier region reportedly have launched more than 15 missile strikes across the border since mid-August. The strikes killed at least two senior al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan. In response, the Pakistani government summoned the U.S. ambassador October 29 and demanded an immediate halt to the strikes. Ho hum.

In the other war zone, a foreign fighter network has been sending militants from North Africa and other Middle East locations to Syria. From there, they slip into Iraq, aided by Syrian military members sympathetic with al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Baath party, according to U.S. military sources. A senior U.S. commander in western Iraq described the border as an "uncontrolled" gateway for entry into Iraq.

The infiltration of foreign fighters had been reduced to an estimated 20 a month by July, according to a U.S. military official. This represents a substantial reduction from 40 fighters a month six months earlier, and an enormous cutback from 100 per month a year earlier. Nevertheless, the foreigners form a force multiplier for the militants because they are highly trained experts in bomb-making and employment of small arms, and are dedicated to suicide bombing. Furthermore, the cash they carry with them has been the major source of income for al Qaeda in Iraq. So consider the following three-day sequence of events.

• October 26. Four U.S. helicopters flew some five miles into Syria, where special ops troops landed to target a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader at the Sukkariyeh Farm near Abu Kamal. Syria's foreign ministry lodged a protest with both the U.S. and Iraqi charges d'affaires, said a ministry spokesman. Ho hum.
  

• October 27. Senior U.S. officials said the administration was operating under an expansive new definition of self-defense. The policy reinforces the doctrine providing for conventional strikes on militant targets in a sovereign nation without its consent, if the nation is either unwilling or unable to neutralize the threat itself.
  

• October 28. To hammer the Bush Doctrine home, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said, "Today we also make clear that the United States will hold any state, terrorist group or other nonstate actor or individual fully accountable for supporting or enabling terrorist efforts to obtain or use weapons of mass destruction -- whether by facilitating, financing or providing expertise or safe haven for such efforts."
  

The Bush administration has spoken strongly and given the incoming administration big sticks It's up to the new administration to use them.

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