-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War!
ARTICLE 02 - Critical Lessons from the Wartime Olympics, by Matthew Dodd ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- By Matthew Dodd >From the majestic mountain backdrops and the appropriately memorable opening ceremonies, the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, are off to a terrific start. But despite all the patriotic fervor, and the accompanying fanfare of friendly international competition, we must remember that our nation is still at war. We must not forget that those who would do us harm are carefully watching our every move and probably plotting their next moves. We must also analyze ourselves and our enemies, and be very careful about the lessons we learn. Only five months after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Salt Lake City is arguably the most secure public place in the world. Depending on which report you believe, approximately 16,000 law enforcement personnel and more military personnel than were on the ground in Afghanistan are providing security in support of the games. Our security personnel enjoy the "home field advantage" and virtually unlimited access to equipment, resources and personnel. This unprecedented security effort was well publicized before the games and is now the subject of a lot of media attention. President Bush reminds us that this war against terrorism and the "Axis of Evil" is just beginning, and the drumbeat of news in the war on terror continues unabated. The FBI has just released yet another terrorist warning against American targets, including the names and photos of 17 suspected al Qaeda terrorists identified through intelligence sources and interviews with detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We have forces in the Philippines, Afghanistan, the North Arabian Sea, and Guantanamo Bay as a direct result of international terrorist activities. The military's budget is being increased in preparation for future operations. Our airline and airport security measures are changed forever. The president has created the Office of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense is poised to change its unified command structure to include standing up a new four-star Northern Command to coordinate the military's role in homeland defense. So with the Winter Games underway, it is appropriate to pose this question: Are we, as Americans, fighting a war during peacetime, or seeking a return to peacetime normalcy in a time of war, or something in between? Let's try to look at the situation from the perspective of a terrorist wanting to attack the United States. Effective terrorist attacks require detailed, long-term planning, often measured in years. However, even if al Qaeda operatives had planned an operation in Salt Lake City that began months or years prior to 9-11, it is likely that the massive security presence there will prove to be an effective deterrent. Thus, any failure of a terrorist attack or attempt, while probably a small setback to the terrorists, would be a major moral and psychological victory for the U.S. war against terrorism. While the games are a very lucrative target with a global audience, the risk is too great - the United States is taking no chances. The best course of action for terrorists wanting to attack the United States, therefore, is for them to patiently observe and learn from the U.S. security efforts in Salt Lake City. It would not be surprising to see al Qaeda initiating some small-scale terrorist activities elsewhere in the world - before, during and after the games - that would allow the terrorists to observe and study the U.S. responses. The terrorists can also learn by monitoring how the United States reacts to other random acts of terrorism, such as car bombs, anthrax letters, the airline "shoe bomber" and female suicide bombers in Israel. Meanwhile, the United States cannot and must not rest on its laurels. Despite the impressive security at Salt Lake City and our combat victory in Afghanistan, the United States still must grapple with a complex challenge as the war on terrorism continues. Time remains an ally to the terrorists, and an enemy to the United States. One likely terrorist goal is to wear down U.S. resolve and resources. Psychologically, the United States is still reeling from last September's attacks. The administration's public acknowledgement of possible terrorist "sleeper cells" in the United States is a great way to increase the public's vigilance, but it can also be free psychological warfare victory handed to the terrorists. The dilemma is that public awareness is essential to thwart additional attacks, but keeping everyone on edge can also erode public confidence over time. (On the other hand, another terrorist tactic for not attacking the ongoing games is to rebuild the U.S. perception of security and invincibility that was shattered last September.) Besides wearing down the United States psychologically, terrorists will likely try to wear us down physically. From the increased military budget and Pentagon press releases, everyone knows that our war against terrorism is very expensive. Sustaining wartime expenditures in a peacetime economy will be quite a challenge. Increasing the level of military effort will further strain the force's fragile operational tempo and materiel maintenance levels. The key will be finding the right balance between psychological needs and physical realities. If these 2002 Winter Olympics are not a good terrorist target, what is? I believe the risk to U.S. citizens will be far greater at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens (as well as subsequent games in 2006 and 2008) than it is at the ongoing Salt Lake City games, which very well may later be seen as a terrorist classroom for their own long-term planning. The locations for those future Olympics are far from the U.S. homeland and the protection available here. The U.S. security role and presence at those games will likely be significantly lower than at Salt Lake City. The same global audience will be there and the risk of failure for terrorists appears to be far less. Finally, the upcoming games offer a chance to demonstrate U.S. incompetence in the global war against terrorism after years of emphasis - something not applicable at present. Another stark scenario is this: If the upcoming Olympics prove to be too obvious a target, or too difficult for a massive terrorist attack, then terrorists could easily use the Olympics as a deception to stage another main attack on the U.S. homeland. If credible threats to the games can be initiated and sustained, who knows what the United States may be forced to do out of prudence? Can we send our athletes to compete so far away in the face of obvious threats? Are we willing to pull out of the games and surrender initiative to the terrorists? These kinds of tough questions will need to be answered if we cannot rid the world of the threats posed by terrorism and the influence of the Axis of Evil in the near future. This war against terrorism is unlike anything we have ever experienced. The fact that one single, diabolical event could be planned by a few, coordinated by many, and executed by only 19 fanatical individuals within a few hours on one infamous day is very scary. The stakes are so high and the threats so real that we must avoid four common pitfalls of the past. * First, we need to ensure that we learn all the right lessons based on honest assessments, and not learn the wrong ones based on wishful thinking and pre-conceived notions. * Second, we must prepare for the next war and engagements based on current lessons learned, and not prepare for the last one based on past experiences. * Third, we must stay focused on our long-term objectives and not lose sight of them in the face of short-term challenges. * Lastly, we need to recognize and adapt to this new and lethal asymmetric threat and not remain rigid and try to fight the enemy as if it were a symmetric force. In this first war of the 21st century, we would be wise to heed the advice of Chinese military leader Sun Tzu when he observed, "Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril." Lt. Col. Matthew Dodd is the pen name of an active-duty Marine Corps officer stationed at the Pentagon. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- ARTICLE 03 - Remember the Alamo! A Testament to Our Fighting Spirit ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- By Patrick Hayes The American spirit had probably lain in wait since the first pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock looking for a new life. However, it was born at Lexington and Concord, and steeled at Valley Forge and on the decks and fighting tops of John Paul Jones' Bonhomme Richard. It has since been reinforced and enhanced many times by the few who have the courage and love of country to take up arms in a just cause - even when that perceived just cause was the destruction of the United States during the Civil War. Brave men died on both sides for something in which they truly believed - but on both sides there was an American spirit. But I wonder what has happened to the American spirit in recent years. What spirit drives the hearts and minds of the vast majority of those who have never served in military uniform and never will - those who reap the wealth that this nation has to give while giving little or nothing in return? What spirit drove enough Americans to elect the antithesis of what this country was founded upon when they voted to elect William Jefferson Clinton, a draft dodger and vocal antagonist of the American military and the American spirit? On a recent trip to Texas, I had the privilege of visiting the Alamo. I recalled and tried to imagine the 13 days those men stood against the armies of Antonio López de Santa Anna, eventually knowing they would die in that broken-down mission north of the Rio Bravo. I walked in their footsteps, as many Americans have, and I wondered what drove such men to face certain death. In combat, we all face the possibility of death or debilitating wounds. We take those chances as professional Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, and Marines. But to stand with some 187 brothers on an indefensible and crumbling adobe walled perimeter against combat hardened troops ranging in number from 2,000 to 5,000 men - and know you will die - what was that spirit? I was humbled to walk through the mission and remaining barracks buildings, and think about the bloody hand-to-hand fighting that ensued as the Texans were slowly overwhelmed that fateful early morning of March 6th, 1836. Yet, knowing they would die, those men chose to stand and fight - many for an ideal of freedom they could barely verbalize, much less truly understand. Yet early Americans had an inherent understanding of what was right and what was wrong. A despot had taken over Mexico, of which most had become citizens of the 1824 new frontier, and their rights and freedoms were in peril. There was a need for men to take up arms against the oppressive régime of Santa Anna, and men took up arms. The heroes of the Alamo died, but their deaths were not in vain by any stretch of liberal imagination. Americans remembered, and within six weeks a Texan army routed and destroyed the numerically superior Mexican army, taking Santa Anna prisoner, with the cry of, "Remember the Alamo!" The story of the Alamo has been retold many times in many places. And in the subsequent wars, heroes have been acknowledged and honored due, in many respects, to the fact that the majority of American males and many women had served their country. That service, that understanding of what is right and what is wrong, was part of the fabric that has held this country together through its most trying times. But that all changed in the last century, probably beginning with the Korean War, but certainly culminating with the American involvement in Indochina and a generation of drugged-out, me-first individualists. But some of us met the call to serve, whether we now say in retrospect the war was right or wrong - at the time it was the right thing to do. However, since the Indochina War, we now have two generations, the vast majority of whom have not served their country in the military, which is reflected in those elected to Congress, where a mere handful today are military veterans. Men (and women) in decision-making positions who have never had the opportunity to serve with the finest of American youth, to be part of a team committed to an objective, whether in peace or in combat, and never had the sense of pride when standing tall and saluting the flag at morning or evening colors, constitute the overwhelming majority of our elected representatives in Washington Other young Americans are being taught by a generation of academics who, for the most part, did not serve and have, to say the least, a skewed and very liberal view of the world and the role of the United States within that world - an "intelligencia" who, as an average, spent its formative years in school, from kindergarten to graduate school, and have rarely held working positions outside the heady realm of the university campus. So what is the answer to where the American spirit has gone? How many now stand at the gate to stop the barbarians? And what if those who stand to be counted with their brothers are not enough? What if the barbarians push us back and the fate of this country - our country - is in the hands of the spineless handwringers and do-gooders whose concern runs not for the few American youth who have the courage to stand at the line and say, "Not on my watch," but for the tattered remnants of the murdering cowards held in detention at Gitmo? What would the heroes of the Alamo say to the United States of 2002? I believe they'd ask, "Where is the spirit of this great nation?" Patrick Hayes is a contributing editor to DefenseWatch. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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