In
April 2004 in testimony before Congress, Condi Rice said:
. President Bush understood the threat, and he understood its importance. He made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al-Qaida one attack at a time. He told me he was "tired of swatting flies."
This new strategy was developed over the Spring and Summer of 2001, and was approved by the President's senior national security officials on September 4. It was the very first major national security policy directive of the Bush Administration - not Russia, not missile defense, not Iraq, but the elimination of al-Qaida.
It looks to me that Bush is still `swatting flies' in Iraq and Afghanistan. It would appear Israel is doing the same thing.
From April 2004 via
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:
Judging by the developments of the last three years, one wonders if US counter-terrorism strategy has gone from swatting flies to stirring hornets' nests. America's enemies are conscious of America's awesome military strength. They know that the US can deploy more effective and efficient weapons against enemies challenging the US in conventional warfare. For that reason, terrorist groups in general and Al-Qaida in particular seek to draw the US into several theaters of confrontation, hoping in the process to increase the human and material cost of such engagement.
Al-Qaida's objective in attacking American targets on 9/11 was to convince its recruitment base in the Muslim world that the US was not invulnerable, thereby creating opportunities to expand its terrorist Jihad. A surgical military operation against Al-Qaida, as well as its financiers and supporters, would have denied the terrorists a wider international audience for radical Islamism. The war for regime change in Iraq, even if well intentioned, has had the opposite effect.
Al-Qaida and its extremist supporters know that America cannot be coerced to leave Iraq by military or political means alone. But according to the authors of ``Jihadi Iraq: Hopes and Danger'', the Islamist resistance can succeed by making the occupation of Iraq as costly as possible for the US. One of that document's most important recommendations is to attack American allies present in Iraq ``because America must not be allowed to share the cost of occupation with a wide coalition of countries''. The goal of the Jihadists is ``to make one or two of the US allies leave the coalition, because this will cause others to follow suit and the dominos will start falling''.
Al-Qaida and other extremists know the Muslim mind and seem also to have some understanding of the Bush administration's approach. They attract massive American military retaliation through violent acts, such as the murder of American civilians in Fallujah, because the collateral damage of military operations adds to resentment of US occupation. The administration's sledgehammer approach loses America critical goodwill of existing and potential allies.
Fast-forward 2 years and we see that neither swatting flies nor using a sledgehammer is achieving the Bush administration goal of eliminating Al Qaeda. In fact, the sledgehammer approach has reduced American credibility and support in the Arab world, and dissolved most of the `coalition'. The initial actions of Al-Qaeda (9/11) has been replaced with the chaos in Iraq and the US is now the 'bad guy' in the Arab world.
The conflict with Israel and Hezbollah seems to be taking a similar course. The initial actions of Hezbollah (kidnapping Israeli soldiers) has long been replaced with images of dead Lebanese civilians. The victim (Israel) is now the `bad guy' and Hezbollah is receiving Arab sympathy.
Simply exercising military might will not eliminate Al-Qaeda. In fact, as we have seen in both Iraq and Lebanon, swatting at flies with 500 lb bombs does not seem to be an effective way to combat terrorists.
The chaos of a broken country is perhaps the best breeding ground for Al-Qaeda. Perhaps a better Al-Qaeda strategy would be to simply avoid creating the chaos in the first place and instead work to truly build nations.
But Bush has said in the past that he was against nation building. It appears he still is, as he has not yet made the necessary effort to actually build one. Of course, it is difficult to build anything with a 500 lb bomb.