The Importance of Calling a War A War

"That offers a reminder of what it takes to win a war on terror. Miranda warnings, civilian trials and shaking down blue-haired ladies at airports don't do it. Hunting and killing terrorists do."

Investment Business Daily has a good article today about how Indonesia has lowered their terrorism rate since they started fighting them with the intention of winning....Doing whatever it takes to win and calling it a WAR! Why are we telling our soldiers that they cannot fire on terrorists in Afghanistan if they are hiding among civilians? How can we win with one hand tied behind our back? It's disgusting. It's OK for our soldiers to die but we mustn't kill an Afghan who supposedly is not a fighter? What????

Terrorism: Indonesia has fallen off the map of the most-terror-prone places on Earth, corporate intelligence forecasters say. How did that happen in a nation once plagued by Bali's bombers? By annihilating the enemy.

This week, Britain's Maplecroft group, an assessor of corporate risk, dropped Indonesia from its top 10 nations most likely to experience a mass-casualty terrorist attack. The group bases its Terrorism Risk Index entries on frequency and intensity of terror attacks and a nation's history.

Likewise, the Swedish National Defense College has concluded that there's a diminishing threat in Indonesia.

If that sounds academic, consider that Indonesian and U.S. officials said no significant security risks threaten President Obama ahead of his weeklong trip to Indonesia next month.

Now, to be sure, terrorism isn't completely gone from Indonesia. But there's been a lot of silence recently from that island country on the terror front. For a nation that experienced some fearsome terror attacks in past years, each quiet month is a sign of victory.

The reason isn't hard to recognize:Last September, Indonesian commandos blew away a Malaysian terrorist named Noordin Mohammed Top, who had a hand in every major Indonesian terror attack since the first Bali bombing of 2002.

It says something that getting rid of a single terrorist kingpin could have such an impact on Indonesia's outlook. But it did.

That offers a reminder of what it takes to win a war on terror. Miranda warnings, civilian trials and shaking down blue-haired ladies at airports don't do it. Hunting and killing terrorists do. Read at IBD "Indonesia Cuts Terror"

"Let's Pretend" That The Terrorists Are Not Terrorists

This editorial is right on the money. Obama and his minions ARE pretending that terrorists are not terrorists but plain old criminals. And as these terrorists in countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen see after a year that our President is soft on crime they will mount ever more and more daring attacks on a weakened America. Mr. Obama wake up from your dreams of redistributive justice and do the job we elected you for - The PROTECTION OF AMERICA AND AMERICANS.

...The U.S. now holds a prisoner of war who has knowledge that could foil future terrorist operations. The Obama administration has a moral obligation to extract it from Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

The White House seems very big on the idea that fear is our enemy, not our friend. When sheer luck prevented the destruction of Northwest flight 253, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano instantaneously insisted there was no larger conspiracy involved — even though the failed bomber himself said otherwise.

And for nearly a year now it has been official U.S. policy, from the commander in chief on down, to eschew wartime terminology. Forget "global war on terror" and substitute "overseas contingency operations." Cut "terrorism," paste in "man-made disasters."

Quelling fears, however, isn't the real purpose behind the altering of the U.S. government's post-9/11 language. This is:

If the public stops believing the free world is in a protracted war with Islamofascist mass murderers, then the question of which party's anti-terrorism policy is better loses all meaning. You can't lose a non-war, any more than you can win one.

If Abdulmutallab is akin to the D.C. Sniper or the Son of Sam, then why turn him upside down in search of information? What's the point in placing another David Berkowitz in a cold jail cell, or depriving a John Allen Muhammad clone of sleep so he'll tell us what he knows?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney hit it on the head this week in charging that this administration is playing an inexcusable game of "Let's Pretend." If we close Guantanamo Bay and send terrorist POWs to some hamlet in Illinois, if we have ACLU-friendly judges try 9/11 conspirators in liberal New York City, then the American people will realize that the big-government sophisticates can take care of these problems...(Read: Time for Enhanced Interrogation at IBD)