Panetta's Pie-In-The-Sky on Al-Qaeda

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 10, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

         Changing hats from CIA Director to Defense Secretary, 73-year-old Leon Panetta visited Afghanistan after taking over for former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.  Panetta oozed optimism, proclaiming that the U.S. was “within reach” of defeating al-Qaeda, a strange prediction considering the extent to which the stealth terror network is spread around the globe.  “We’re within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda and I’m hoping to be able to focus on that, working obviously with my prior agency as well,” Panetta told U.S. military leaders in Kabul.  After Navy Seals took down Osama bin Laden May 1, there’s new optimism that the U.S. can also track down 59-year-old Egyptian-born al-Qaeda’s No. 2 Ayman al Zawahiri.  Despite getting Bin Laden in Pakistan, al-Qaeda’s remaining leadership is spread around the globe, concentrating in the Middle East and North Africa.

            Panetta would like to put al-Zawahiri and 40-year-old American-born Yemen-based al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki in the crosshairs.  “Now is the moment following what happened to Bin Laden, to put maximum pressure on them.  Because I do believe that if we continue this effort we can really cripple al-Qaeda as a threat [to the United States],” said Panetta, well-aware that current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq do little to deal with the al-Qaeda.  Revelations about Bin Laden’s 6-year hideout in Abbottsabad, Pakistan undermines former Bush administration arguments that the U.S. needed to fight in both countries to stave off an al-Qaeda advance.  Recent revelations about Bin Laden’s whereabouts upends conventional theories that Afghanistan and Iraq were central battlefields in the war on terror.  Panetta’s assessment clearly shows al-Qaeda moved to new venues.

            Panetta public remarks carry little clout and only antagonize what remains of al-Qaeda or other U.S. enemies.  As CIA Director, Panetta knew that the original intelligence used to justify the Iraq War in 2003 came from neocons, manufacturing intelligence at the Pentagon/s Office of Special Plans run by Douglas J. Feith Jr., now professor of international relations at Georgetown University.  Leon also knew that Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar fled Afghanistan’s Tora Bora around Dec. 17, 2001.  Bush officials insisted that Afghanistan and Iraq were essential to the war on terror, when they knew that key al-Qadeda operatives were neither in Iraq nor Afghanistan.  Promising to defeat al-Qadea, Panetta continues to blow smoke about the global terror organization.  Since Sept. 11, Bin Laden or Omar had little to do with global terror operations.

            Going after what’s left of al-Qaeda has little to do with what currently goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq.  President Barack Obama should do more to bring the troops home, since missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have questionable national security significance.  “I would say somewhere around 10-20 key leaders between Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, AQIM [al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] in North Africa.  Those are, if we can go after them, I think we cab strategically defeat al-Qaeda,” said an unnamed Pentagon.  Panetta shouldn’t ;publicly announce U.S. targets but instead should offer something different than the current war strategy.  President Barack Obama should offer more hope before next year’s election than withdrawing only 10,000 troops this year and another 23,000 next year.  Panetta want to keep the pressure on Pakistan, whose government denied knowing anything about Bin Laden’s whereabouts.

            Panetta’s best key to winning the war on terror is ending wasteful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Pentagon officials have had poor communication with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whose family shares ethnic ties to the Taliban and whose brother Ahmed Wali Karzai is linked to Afghan’s infamous opium trade.  “Hopefully it can be the beginning of a much better relationship that what we’re had [with Karzai] over the past few years,” said Panetta, offering nothing new to change the strained relationship.  Karzai’s U.S.-trained security forces have close family ties to the Kandahar-based Taliban. “We’ve made good progress on that, but I think there’s a lot more work to do of being able to transition responsibility to them,” said Panetta, referring to U.S. plans to exit Afghanistan in 2014.  Panetta offers no plan how to stop Taliban infiltration into Aghan security forces.

            Panetta should do things differently than this predecessor Robert Gates, who reluctantly admitted after leaving his post June 30 that the U.S. shouldn’t remake countries around the globe.  Gates’ predecessor Donald Rumsfeld believed, like other former Bush administration officials, in the doctrine of preemptive war.  Panetta must get on the same page as Obama in correcting past mistakes that have cost the U.S. treasury trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.  If Panetta really wants to focus on U.S. enemies, especially al-Qaeda, he needs to accelerate the end of the Afghan and Iraq wars.  With the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11 coming in less than two months, Panetta should spend his time overhauling a failed war strategy.  Creating a new terrorism paradigm and preserving what’s left of the U.S. military should only help deal more effectively with the war on terror.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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