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September 11, 2008
Exclusive: September 11th – Seven Years Later
Today is September 11th, the seventh anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington. Anniversaries serve not only to commemorate events, but also make us stock of where we are, what we’ve done and what we still need to do. There have been some successes, but some failures too in the war on terror. We have used our military and our intelligence services, but we’ve not fully employed our economic tool.
On the military front, America has fought wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iraq is finally on its way to being a self-sustaining democracy in the heart of the Arab world, although it has taken far longer and cost more in American lives and treasure than President Bush told us it would. American troops have turned province after province over to the Iraqis, and the Iraqi government is pulling together Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds into a national with an Iraqi identity.
In Afghanistan we had initial success in defeating the Taliban and crippling al Qaeda. Afghanistan has held elections, and a democratic government prevails in Kabul. But we have yet to capture Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Zawahiri, and there is large scale fighting outside of the capital.
The Taliban has reconstituted itself along Afghanistan-Pakistan border and has launched terrorist attacks in Pakistan. While this does not present a direct threat to America, it does leave open the possibility that future terrorists can be trained in these regions and again find there way to our shores, perhaps with some of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
On the intelligence front, September 11th caught us unawares. We have now redirected both our foreign and domestic intelligence agencies to focus on terrorism and terrorists. A number of our cities, especially New York, have built up incredibly competent counter-terrorism and intelligence units. They have foiled a number of attacks on U.S. facilities at home and abroad.
But these are military and intelligence achievements are defensive efforts to prevent terrorists from attacking us once they’ve been radicalized and enlisted in the cause. They have been an essential first step in combating Islamic extremism and terrorism. But in and of themselves, they are not enough. These efforts may have kept us safe from attack for these last seven years, but none of them get to the root of the problem and ensure our safety in the years ahead. That’s why we need to use our economic tool.
Terrorist movements cost money. Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations exist today because they are funded by countries flush with oil revenues. Until we and the rest of the world stop buying their oil we will be unable to stop terrorism at its source.
Twenty years ago Saudi Arabia, flush with petrodollars, began exporting its conservative brand of Islam, Wahabism, to other Sunni Muslim countries. They established religious schools in these countries, called madrassas, to convert the next generation of Muslims to their sect.
Many of these countries saw the madrassas as a life line and a way to educate their people when they could not afford to do so themselves. The problem is Islamic extremists took over the madrassas, especially in Pakistan and used them as recruiting grounds for terrorists. The teachers at these schools may have taught their students to read and write, but they also taught a select group of them to make suicide bombs and plan attacks. These Pakistani extremists are supplying the next round of terrorists and suicide bombers.
Iran, flush with oil wealth, has also used those revenues to support terrorist organizations like Hezbollah in Lebanon, which poses a direct threat to Israel. Iran has used its oil wealth to reconstitute its military and especially to fund its nuclear weapons program.
The single best thing America can do to prevent this next generation of terrorists and to stop Muslim extremism in its tracks is to cut off its source of funding. Without excessive oil profits, countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran will be hard pressed to provide for their own people, they will have nothing left to fund terrorist movements abroad or acquire nuclear weapons.
That is why the next Administration must break with the status quo in Washington and push for energy independence. It is just as important a tool in our war on terror as our military and intelligence efforts. Only then can we truly celebrate America’s triumph over Islamic extremists and terrorism.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor KT McFarland is a former top Pentagon official in the Reagan Administration and a frequent commentator on national security issues and foreign affairs. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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