Thomas Sowell

 Whatever the specific merits or demerits of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, re-organizing the whole intelligence operations of the United States in a few months before an election seems like quite a rush to judgment.


 Creating an intelligence "czar" in charge of all information on terrorists, whether that information comes from the CIA, the FBI or elsewhere, may or may not be a good idea. But what kind of intelligence "czar" can you get to be put in place just months before a presidential election?

 The kind of top-caliber person needed is the least likely to accept such an appointment, when the job could turn out to end in a few months, depending on the outcome of the presidential election. Even if such a person could be found, how much influence could that official wield over long-term career people in the intelligence services who know that this official could be gone next January?


 No quick-fix reorganization can change that. The war against terrorism is a very different kind of war. The Soviet Union, with all its nuclear weapons, could be deterred by our nuclear weapons. But suicide terrorists cannot be deterred. They can only be intercepted or killed.

 What can be deterred are countries that provide the support for terrorism. That means making such countries fear us more than they fear the terrorists. You don't get that with UN resolutions or even by consulting our "allies" -- least of all allies who cut and run, like Spain and the Philippines.

 You deter nations by showing them what destruction you are prepared to rain down on those nations that refuse to be deterred. Whether or not the war against Iraq ends up uncovering any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, it has already turned up weapons of mass destruction that Libya is giving up because Qaddafi did not want to end up like Saddam Hussein.

 Everyone already knows that the United States has the military power to destroy any government that promotes international terrorism. What has long been in doubt is whether we have the will.

Thomas Sowell


Creators Syndicate