The National Commission on the War on Terrorism Is Hereby Called to Order

Micah Zenko, foreignpolicy.com

It’s time to get serious about evaluating America’s counterterrorism strategy.

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Extract from article:

As Obama acknowledged in March, “We can’t keep on thinking about counterterrorism and security as entirely separate from diplomacy, development, education — all these things that are considered soft, but in fact are vital to our national security, and we do not fund those.” Unfortunately, those are still perceived as entirely separate and given relatively little attention or money. ...

In a major 2006 strategy document President Bush declared: “We must employ all elements of U.S. national power, including public diplomacy, development, and democracy-building programs, to address the conditions which terrorists exploit and to counter extremist propaganda and recruiting” — that is nearly the same language and approach used by the White House today. ...

The war on terrorism clearly needs a major review and rethink, unless the American people are comfortable with ensuring that the United States will be at war forever.