Last week marked an important
milestone in the war on terrorism for our country. Osama bin Laden applauded
the 9/11 attacks. Such deliberate killing of innocent lives deserved
retaliation. It is good that bin Laden is dead and justice is served. The way
in which he was finally captured and killed shows that targeted retribution
is far superior to wars of aggression and nation-building. In 2001 I
supported giving the president the authority to pursue those responsible for
the vicious 9/11 attacks. However, misusing that authority to pursue
nation-building and remaking the Middle East was cynical and dangerous, as
the past ten years have proven.
It is tragic that it took ten
years, trillions of dollars, tens of thousands of American casualties and
many thousands of innocent lives to achieve our mission of killing one evil
person. A narrow, targeted mission under these circumstances was far superior
to initiating wars against countries not involved in the 9/11 attacks, and
that is all we should have done. This was the reason I emphasized at the time
the principle of Marque and Reprisal, permitted to us by the US Constitution
for difficult missions such as we faced. I am convinced that this approach
would have achieved our goal much sooner and much cheaper.
The elimination of Osama bin
Laden should now prompt us to declare victory and bring our troops home from
Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Qaeda was never in Iraq and we were supposedly in
Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden. With bin Laden gone, there is no reason
for our presence in the region - unless indeed it was all about oil,
nation-building, and remaking the Middle East and Central Asia.
Hopefully bin Laden does not
get the last laugh. He claimed the 9/11 attacks were designed to get the US
to spread its military dangerously and excessively throughout the Middle
East, bankrupting us through excessive military spending as he did the
Soviets, and to cause political dissention within the United States. Some 70
percent of Americans now believe we should leave Afghanistan yet both parties
seem determined to stay. The best thing we could do right now is prove bin
Laden a false prophet by coming home and ending this madness on a high note.
Tragically, one result may be
the acceptance of torture as a legitimate tool for pursuing our foreign
policy. A free society, calling itself a republic, grounded in the rule of
law, should never succumb to such evil.
At the very least we should all
be able to agree that foreign aid to Pakistan needs to end immediately. The
idea that bin Laden was safely protected for ten years in Pakistan, either
willfully or through incompetence, should make us question the wisdom of
robbing American citizens to support any government around the world with
foreign aid. All foreign aid and intervention needs to end.
Our failed foreign policy is
reflected in our bizarre relationship with Pakistan. We bomb them with
drones, causing hundreds of civilian casualties, we give them billions of
dollars in foreign aid for the privilege to do so, all while they protect
America's enemy number one for a decade.
It is time to consider a
sensible non-interventionist foreign policy as advised by our Founders and
authorized by our Constitution. We would all be better off for it.
