Many of you may have noticed that the pace of counter-terrorism operations seems to have picked up substantially under the Obama administration, with more frequent reports of UAV strikes and even the occasional SOF raid, as in the hit on Saleh Ali Nabhan last September. In a story subsequently picked up by MSNBC, the Washington Post reports that most of the operations are focused on killing, rather than capturing, terrorists. The reason is shocking:
One problem identified by those within and outside the government
is the question of where to take captives apprehended outside established war
zones and cooperating countries. "We've been trying to decide this for over a
year," the senior military officer said. "When you don't have a detention policy
or a set of facilities," he said, operational decisions become more difficult.
Good intelligence is key to successful special operations, as in linear targeting where intelligence gathered from an operation against one target quickly drives follow-on operations against other targets. While the angry American in me is all for sending terrorists to Allah whenever the opportunity presents itself, basic strategic thought cautions we can't always rely on technology to deliver the necessary intelligence and dead men tell no tales.
There can many good reasons to kill, rather than capture, a high-value target. Foremost among these would be too much risk of compromise or danger to the special operators. However, if we intend to win this war and protect ourselves and our allies from terrorism, we must collectively come to grips with the true nature of this war and our enemy and develop and implement a practical and effective detention and interrogation policy. To do otherwise is a huge failure by the political leaders upon whom warfighters rely to set sensible policy and strategy.
By: Guardian
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