Participants in the War on Terror - Third Superpower

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Participants in the War on Terror

Authored by Michael Pate on February 23rd, 2004 at 5:30 PM

That said, they are really misleading all of America, Tom, in a profound way. The war on terror is less — it is occasionally military, and it will be, and it will continue to be for a long time. And we will need the best-trained and the most well-equipped and the most capable military, such as we have today. But it’s primarily an intelligence and law enforcement operation that requires cooperation around the world — the very thing this administration is worst at. - John Kerry

Told by local Afghans that hundreds of Taliban fighters were holed up in nearby villages and in the mountains above them, Army Warrant Officer Michael J. McInerney led his detachment of 12 Special Forces soldiers from a Maryland Army National Guard unit into the jagged hills in pursuit. The insurgents “scattered like rats,” said McInerney, 39, a resident of Alexandria, Va. But between Aug. 25 and Sept. 4 last year, he and his fellow citizen-soldiers, with about 200 Afghan militiamen, tracked the Taliban on foot up the hot, dusty valleys that crease the 9,000-foot peaks north of Dai Chupan, in southern Zabul province. They fought three battles and called in airstrikes to dislodge the enemy from the high ground. Scores of Taliban fighters were killed, with only one American soldier in their unit wounded. - Frank D. Roylance

What I do know is that we must, as George Kennan would tell us to, search for the weave of history, try to connect the dots, as best we can — as he did so well. When we do that, one aspect of the challenges before us keeps repeating itself, in various forms and in various places. And that�s the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the possibility that proliferation might link up with terrorism. We must not let that happen. The tragedy of September 11, 2001 was terrible enough. But the war on terrorism isn�t just about al-Qaida, or just preventing another disaster on the scale of 9/11. The war on terrorism is even more about preventing the fusion of weapons of mass destruction with terrorist groups trying to acquire them. It�s about preventing a catastrophe on a scale much larger than what happened on 9/11. - Colin Powell

Links in this entry:

Md. Guard valorous in Afghanistan
Remarks on the Occasion of George Kennan�s Centenary Birthday
Transcript: Democratic Candidates Debate in South Carolina

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