War On Terrorism

WHEN THE war against international terrorism is over, will the Irish Republican Army remain? Will the Tamil Tigers still slaughter, the Basque separatists deliver bombs to Spanish officials? No doubt all that will remain, to the continuing anxiety of the people of Ireland, Sri Lanka and Spain. Though these groups fight against the legitimate governments of nations with which they are at odds, they keep in touch with counterparts in other lands. They trade arms, explosives, advice. The IRA has gotten much of its financing from sympathetic Americans, and trained its volunteers in Libya.

The contradictions at the heart of the Obama presidency are finally out in the open. As a result, a man who came into office hell-bent on restoring faith in government is on the verge of inspiring a libertarian revival. There have always been (at least) two Barack Obamas. There is the man who claims to be a nonideological problem-solver, keen on working with anybody to fix things. And there is The One: the partisan, left-leaning progressive-redeemer. As E.J. Dionne, a columnist who can usually be counted on to make the case for Mr. Obama better than Mr. Obama can, recently wrote, the president "has been a master, as good politicians are, at presenting different sides of himself to different constituencies.

ST. LOUIS - The United States recently froze the assets of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in the nation, affecting more than $13 million in donations and assets that were to be distributed during Ramadan. But the war on terrorism took on a new face Wednesday when the chairman of the Jewish Defense League, Irv Rubin, and a JDL member, Earl Krugel, were charged in connection with plotting to blow up a Los Angeles mosque and the office of a Christian Arab-American congressman, Republican Darrell Issa of California.

Every time I drive between Baltimore and Washington and come upon those big, spooky National Security Agency buildings in Fort Meade, I have cinematic thoughts about what goes on inside. I imagine the best and brightest of surveillance nerds spying on nuclear activity in Iran, on terrorist training camps in Yemen, on Kim Jong-un's playroom in North Korea. I also assume they're watching me as I drive along Route 32, taking my picture and running it through face-recognition software, recording the license plate on my car. If there's a cellphone in use, they're probably listening to the conversation, too. But wait.

WASHINGTON -- Republican efforts to portray themselves as stronger than the Democrats on national security might have gotten a real-world boost with the unraveling of an alleged terror plot in London, analysts said yesterday. The arrests of 24 suspected plotters came only hours after White House officials, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, sought to link Democratic opposition to the Iraq war with softness in fighting terrorism. Their comments were in response to a surge in anti-war sentiment in this week's Connecticut primary election that appeared to threaten candidates from both parties who have been supportive of the administration's Iraq policy.

WASHINGTON - Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none has been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrassas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our deficit and finance our own schools.

WASHINGTON - As it expands its war on terrorism beyond Afghanistan, the United States finds the need to gain support from other governments clashing with long-standing commitments to expand human rights and democracy worldwide. From Indonesia to the Middle East, the United States is reaching out to governments and military establishments with poor or questionable human rights records for help in uprooting al-Qaida cells and cracking down on Islamic terrorists threatening Americans, garbling its message on human rights.

NOT SO LONG AGO, young Trae Cohee served as a volunteer at the Station Street fire house in Mardela Springs, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Tomorrow he will return there one last time. That's where the visitation and funeral will be for Staff Sgt. Walter F. Cohee III, known to his friends as "Trae" for the roman numerals following his name. The 26-year-old Marine was killed last Sunday in northern Afghanistan when his helicopter slammed into the side of a mountain. The crash happened far from the small town of Mardela Springs where Trae grew up, played soccer and dreamed of seeing the world.

The director of the National Security Agency told a ceremony honoring veterans and military families yesterday that the war on terrorism, already taking its toll on military families, will be a prolonged conflict. "This is a long war, three years and counting," Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden told a gathering of about 100 people at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "It will be a fight to the finish." He spoke with feeling of the continuum from Gettysburg to Normandy to today's troops stationed in the Iraqi desert.

WASHINGTON - President Bush leaves little doubt that the prime targets in the war on terrorism are "evil" and "evildoers," not to mention "the evil one," Osama bin Laden. The president typically refers to terrorists or their misdeeds as "evil" a few times per public appearance, occasionally more. He hit two on the "evil" scale in his radio address Saturday, a light day. "Our enemies are evil," he told troops last week at Fort Campbell, Ky., where he also noted, "Good triumphs over evil."

"This war, like all wars, must end. That's what history advises. That's what our democracy demands. " -- President Barack Obama at National Defense University, May 23, 2013 They say all is fair in love and war (I'm skeptical), but that doesn't mean war and love have much in common. When it comes to love, both parties need to be in on it. In war, all it takes is one to tango. Sure, if the nonbelligerent party doesn't want to fight, it can try to talk, or cut a deal, or even surrender.

I was shocked by the brazen disregard shown toward the public byRobert L. Ehrlich Jr.in his recent column on the war against terror ("Do we have what it takes to beatal-Qaida?" April 27). Mr. Ehrlich characterizes peace groups as placating and ignoring "those whose primary goal it is to terrorize and destroy the world. " This claim is baseless. These groups simply want a more just and fair world where America is respected instead of hated. Yet Mr. Ehrlich goes on to declare that Americans are "lazy" and "withdrawn" in "the absence of organized, direct threats.

A Woodlawn man watches online videos of Osama bin Laden, posts about jihad on his Facebook page, and — according to federal prosecutors — agrees to a plot to detonate a bomb at a military recruiting center in Catonsville. An Ellicott City teen is accused of using the Internet to solicit volunteers and money for a jihadist war in South Asia and Europe. A former Army private from Laurel comes across an Islamic website, becomes a Muslim and makes plans to join a State Department-designated terrorist group in Somalia so he can live under Sharia law. That soldier, Craig Benedict Baxam, is the most recent Marylander accused of finding his way to Islamic extremism online.

General Physics Corp. had already built a strong business training police and fire departments in the use of emergency equipment. But after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the doors of opportunity opened even wider. The attacks focused officials at all levels of government on homeland security, and federal money to support it become plentiful. Protecting against terrorist attacks became a high priority for municipalities and federal grants to support the effort became plentiful.

For the past few days, I've watched commentators on both the left and the right examine and analyze the reaction of the "American street" to the news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Many of those who gathered at the White House and other places of national significance have been college and university students. It is an error to compare these spontaneous demonstrations with those in the Arab world following the attacks of 9/11 or to insinuate that such demonstrations by young people were simply expressions of over-excited youth.

Some people in politics seem unable to accept good news. Take, for example, how House Minority Leader John Boehner greeted the arrest of the man accused of the Times Square car bombing plot. After Faisal Shahzad had been seized only 53 hours after the plot was thwarted, Mr. Boehner observed: "We have been lucky, but luck is not an effective strategy for fighting terrorism." He added that the Obama administration "continues to operate without a real, comprehensive plan to confront and defeat the terrorist threat."

OAKDALE, Pa. - Deep in the Western Pennsylvania hills, a large white golf ball-like globe rests above the trees. Around it, several octagonal buildings on stilts tower above the autumn foliage. Upriver, smoke from the nuclear power plant fills the air. The last time America braced for an attack at home, this fortress 12 miles southwest of Pittsburgh served as the command center for a dozen underground missile sites, ready to fire should the Soviets target the city. Now, as the 99th Regional Support Command's headquarters in Oakdale, it is again handling homeland defense.

MADISON, Wis. - The bricks are still charred in one corner of the Red Gym at the University of Wisconsin here, burned by a bomb hurled by anti-war protesters trying to destroy the offices of the ROTC, or Reserve Officers' Training Corps. But that was another time and another war. Today, even on this legendarily radical campus, uniformed ROTC members drill at will and train to become military officers without fear of disdain or worse from what one student newspaper calls "the peace-mongers."

WASHINGTON - -Eight years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the United States is still at war against "the people who knocked down these buildings." That was how then-President George W. Bush put it as he stood atop the rubble of the World Trade Center, speaking through a bullhorn and vowing revenge. The war in Afghanistan continues, with 21,000 new U.S. troops headed there this year to bring American forces to 68,000. But in the years since Sept. 11, the structure and operation of al-Qaida have undergone dramatic change, as have steps taken by U.S. officials and their allies in efforts to weaken and immobilize the extremist group.

Sept. 11, 2001, hangs over the American political scene like one of those mirrored disco balls, shining lights in every direction, its ultimate message hard to discern. No candidate can hope to be elected president without trying to focus one of those beams, finding a meaning to this day of tragedy that can make it part of a compelling narrative of American story. But what part of the story should it be?