The big news today: The John McCain camp pounced on Barack Obama's naive statement that the United States should treat terror attacks as a law enforcement matter.
And rightly so.
Obama points to the trial after the first World Trade Center bombing as an example of the proper approach to the war on terror. Trying the terrorists in the courts was the "right" way to treat Muslims, Obama says.
Yet the trial of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers and their conviction in late 1997 did not placate anybody. It did not solve anything. It did not prevent the next attack. In fact, the 1993 World Trade Center bombers continued inciting jihad from behind bars, including heaping praise on Osama Bin Laden.
The law enforcement approach taken by Bill Clinton and now urged by Barack Obama led directly to the September 11, 2001 attack less than four years after the bombers were convicted. It led directly to thousands of dead Americans and tens of thousands injured and bereaved. The law enforcement approach led directly to this:
Barack Obama is still in preschool when it comes to the war of Islamic terror. He has no practical idea how to deal with THIS.
His idea is this: Go to a big, powerful Daddy judge in a black robe and tell Daddy how bad the terrorists have been.
Daddy will make it all right. "Daddy, he hit me!"
If Obama is elected, he will learn the hard way that courts have no power. They can't intercept a single terrorist. They can't inspect a single shipment. They can't ever connect the dots and do something before it's too late.
Some federal judges may relish today the idea of jumping into the middle of the war of Islamic terror, but after terrorists start verbally abusing and perhaps even targeting federal judges -- and after some terrorists freed by federal judges go on to kill again -- being close to the front lines of the war on terror will begin to lose its fascination for the federal courts.
The courts are only as powerful as the soldiers and law enforcement officers who back them up. Tie the hands of the military and law enforcement, and America will soon be sorting through a lot more rubble and attending many additional memorial services for innocent dead Americans.
Let's just look at the track record:
1. After what was then the worst terror attack on American soil in 1993, America tried and convicted the bombers. This is the approach now advocated by Barack Obama. What it led to, however, was an escalation and an attack many times more horrific and deadly that killed thousands of innocent Americans on September 11, 2001.
2. After the September 11, 2001 attack, George W. Bush tried a different approach. He took the war to the terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also substantially beefed up domestic security. The result is that numerous terror plots have been deterred, intercepted and thwarted. We have now had over six years without any similar successful attack on American soil -- something that seemed virtually impossible on September 11, 2001.
Obama sincerely does not understand any of this yet. He is still in preschool when it comes to the war of Islamic jihad. He is sincere in his naivete. Putting Obama into the White House as Commander in Chief with this mindset would be like sending a preschooler into a busy intersection to direct traffic.
Update: Andrew C. McCarthy reviews the history of the failed reliance on the law enforcement approach, and writes: "Obama would bring us back to September 10th America. And September 10th is sure to be followed by September 11th."
Comments