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August 02, 2004
Fighting Terror by Attacking. . .South America?
Days after 9/11, a senior Pentagon official lamented the lack of good targets in Afghanistan and proposed instead U.S. military attacks in South America or Southeast Asia as "a surprise to the terrorists," according to a footnote in the recent 9/11 Commission Report. The unsigned top-secret memo, which the panel's report said appears to have been written by Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, is one of several Pentagon documents uncovered by the commission which advance unorthodox ideas for the war on terror. The memo suggested "hitting targets outside the Middle East in the initial offensive" or a "non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq," the panel's report states. U.S. attacks in Latin America and Southeast Asia were portrayed as a way to catch the terrorists off guard when they were expecting an assault on Afghanistan.
Notice that Feith called Iraq a "non-Al Qaeda target," in sharp contrast to the pronouncements of the administration leading up to, and following, the war. Still, the fact that Feith remains a member in good standing of the administration (after this and many other debacles) is reason enough to toss the bums out in November. Unfortunately, the only likely alternative isn't much better.
(Link courtesy Antiwar.com.)
Posted by Mike Tennant at August 2, 2004 09:48 AM