CRAIGforCONGRESS
Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

  
 
 

 

Congressional Issues 2010
FOREIGN AFFAIRS - DEFENSE
Terrorism

The 112th Congress should:

  • Recognize that a "war on terrorism" makes as much sense as a "war on amphibious assault"
  • Stop funding terrorists
  • Oppose unconstitutional foreign aid to oppressive governments (such as Israel) and unconstitutional military occupation of foreign nations (such as Iraq) -- even if terrorists also oppose these things.
Defining Terrorism, Feb. 2010:
Joe Stack crashes his plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. "Terrorist?" Why not? 
Terrorism: the most meaningless and manipulated word
Why was Joe Stack not an "enemy combatant?"
Can you be a "terrorist" if you haven't yet committed an act of "terrorism?"
Were George Washington, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock "terrorists?"
The Cure is Worse than the Disease

Recommendations of the Cato Institute:

  • stress to the administration that the joint resolution approved by the Senate and House of Representatives authorized the president ‘‘to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001,’’ not to wage an amorphous war on ‘‘evil’’;

    •

  • urge the administration to focus the war on terrorism only on the al-Qaeda terrorist network and not expand it to other terrorist groups or countries that have not attacked the United States;

  • urge the administration to reduce military operations in Afghanistan and expand military operations into the Peshawar border region in Pakistan to root out al-Qaeda and Taliban forces;

  • recognize that much of the war against terrorism will not involve military action but will emphasize diplomatic, intelligence, and law enforcement cooperation with other countries;

  • refuse to provide funds for U.S. military presence and interventions overseas that are not required to defend U.S. vital interests and could result in catastrophic retaliatory attacks on the U.S. homeland by terrorists using weapons of mass destruction;
  • resist "anti-terrorism" initiatives that would undermine civil liberties and be ineffective in preventing terrorist attacks; and
  • consider using a small portion of the savings from reducing unnecessary defense programs to stockpile antidotes to common chemical and biological agents and to train emergency response personnel to mitigate the effects of catastrophic attacks.
The U.S. defense and intelligence system failed to protect Americans from Terrorism on September 11th because it is based on re-fighting World War II and the Cold War, and no fundamental reforms have been made since. Details

In addition, this same defense system did not appreciate the long-term dangers of giving military aid to Islamic terrorists twenty years ago when these terrorists were "freedom fighters" against Communism.

During Iraq's war with U.S. enemy Iraq, the U.S. gave aid to Saddam Hussein's dictatorship:

9-11 should have forced a wholesale re-evaluation of America's defense and foreign policy. Instead, the defense machinery went into high gear in the same wrong-headed direction, destroying the liberties of Americans. Consider this metaphor:

The Exterminators

You hire an exterminator to protect your home from termites. The exterminator promises that his protection will give you the freedom to enjoy the blessings of homeownership. You spend more for the exterminators than you do for the education of your children. Every now and then you see a show of force, making you think the exterminators are on the job and your house is safe from termites.

Then one day a wall of your house caves in, revealing a long-active termite infestation. Evidence indicates that the exterminators you hired had been breeding these termites in the hopes that they would attack your neighbor, who had hired a rival exterminator. You're ready to fire your exterminator, but you are told:

  1. You have no choice in the exterminator you want to protect your house.
  2. Your exterminator has declared a "war on termites," and this means you will not be permitted to use your kitchen for the duration of the war. You will have to unload your groceries down the block and walk to your house, and be searched at the door.
  3. You will have to pay much more for the "services" of these exterminators than you were paying them before they allowed termites to infest your home.

Does this make any sense? Am I "unpatriotic" for asking these questions?

Putting Fear of Terrorism in Perspective | Tom Engelhardt

The World Trade Center was not the first American building to be destroyed by Islamic terrorists:

Nor is this the first time in history that Muslim nations have been in conflict with a Christian nation.  Two hundred years ago, General William Eaton, a major figure in the Barbary Powers conflict, spoke of a similar conflict. Eaton was first appointed by President John Adams as "Consul to Tunis," (next to modern-day Libya) and President Thomas Jefferson later advanced him to the position of "U. S. Naval Agent to the Barbary States," authorizing him to lead a military expedition against Tripoli. Eaton’s official correspondence during his service confirms that the conflict was a Muslim war against a Christian America. For example, when writing to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, Eaton apprised him of why the Muslims would be such dedicated foes:

Taught by revelation that war with the Christians will guarantee the salvation of their souls, and finding so great secular advantages in the observance of this religious duty [the secular advantage of keeping captured cargoes], their [the Muslims’] inducements to desperate fighting are very powerful. (more details)

Walmart.com - Extreme Islam: Anti-American Propaganda of the Islamic Revolution

 Other terrorist acts, unacknowledged by the U.S. government:

Harry Browne:

Attorney General John Ashcroft recently said: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve" (Dec 6, 2001). Helping people see the importance of the American value of liberty does not aid anti-liberty terrorists. Giving billions of dollars in military aid to fanatics dedicated to Islamic Jihad is what aids terrorism. There is no greater engine of terrorism on earth than the U.S. federal government.

next: Weapons of Mass Destruction