Strategery in the War on Terror
GW’s policy for fighting the War on Terror so far… put the warlords in charge in Afghanistan fracturing the country, invade Iraq and fail to pacify the country, threaten Iran, and most importantly, leave the Saudis alone.
Every so often, even more evidence arises about how close an ally the Saudis are in the War on Terror. Like this:
Despite six years of promises, U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia continues to look the other way at wealthy individuals identified as sending millions of dollars to al Qaeda.
“If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia,” Stuart Levey, the under secretary of the Treasury in charge of tracking terror financing, told ABC News.
Despite some efforts as a U.S. ally in the war on terror, Levey says Saudi Arabia has dropped the ball. Not one person identified by the United States and the United Nations as a terror financier has been prosecuted by the Saudis, Levey says.
…
Among those on the donor list, according to U.S. officials, is Yasin al Qadi, a wealthy businessman named on both the U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda financiers one month after the 9/11 attacks.
Al Qadi, who has repeatedly denied the allegations, remains free, still a prominent figure in Saudi Arabia.
And for good measure, we’re giving money to Pakistan…
U.S. officials say they are equally frustrated with what they call the empty promises of Pakistan to go after al Qaeda’s sanctuaries in their country.
Pakistan says it is willing to take action if the U.S. provides details.
…
U.S. officials fear there are more like al Shehri heeding bin Laden’s call and coming now from Pakistan.
“The consequence is that there is in effect a sanctuary in the northwest part of Pakistan, just like the sanctuary that used to exist before we invaded Afghanistan,” Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism official and now ABC News consultant, said.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again… GW’s policy so far has been about as effective as invading Brazil or Belgium would have been. And the arguments we’re seeing now for staying the course or the terrorists would follow us home… are the same arguments we’d be seeing if we had invaded Brazil or Belgium and were stuck in a quagmire four years later.