At Human Events, W. Thomas Smith Jr. writes “Barack Obama may well be the proverbial rooster trying to take credit for the sunrise. But in the case of the elite U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command Development Group’s killing of terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, credit should rest with America’s special operations forces and their years of planning and near 10-year commitment to eliminating bin Laden.”
Americans can cheer the U.S. Naval Special Development Group (DevGru), formerly known as SEAL Team Six, for their elimination of Osama bin Laden. As we have written on Richardcyoung.com many times, a combination of CIA intelligence and Special Forces strikes like these are exactly the strategy that will win the War on Terror. Ground forces performing meet-and-greets with Afghani tribesmen and farmers will not.
As America continues to prosecute the War on Terror, we should be reminded that intelligence driven assaults like this have garnered the greatest success, while the “boots on the ground” counterinsurgency strategies being employed in Afghanistan and Iraq have led to long wars in areas where no foreseeable future benefits are apparent.
Finally, let’s not forget how very helpful the billions of dollars of foreign aid to Pakistan have NOT been. Anyone still encouraging more of the “carrot and stick” approach to winning the War on Terror is deluded. The funds spent in the Middle East have been wasted. Many of the governments receiving money have been overthrown, for better or worse. And those “allies” still in power like those in Pakistan are either willfully ignorant or woefully incompetent.
Boiled down, this all means that big-government interventions into other nations, whether through military might or money payoffs, simply don’t get the job done. Covert intelligence and Special Forces won the day and should be the prime focus in the War on Terror. Congratulations to DevGru.
