RUTHFULLY YOURS

On Christmas Day, we nearly had another catastrophic attack on American soil, after a radicalized young man from Nigeria was allowed on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit despite an earlier threat warning from his father to United States authorities. This incident, while alarming, is not surprising — we are not properly organized to wage this war and Congress and the Obama administration should take immediate steps to fix it.

Despite a series of new national initiatives, including a new cabinet level agency, the Department of Homeland Security, we are not significantly safer than before 9/11. We have taken the wrong path to better security. Among some of our most experienced combat veterans, there is a consensus that to defeat Al Qaeda on a global scale we need to form a Joint Inter-Agency Task Force similar to the World War II Office of Strategic Services.

This body should be drawn from the whole of the government — including the intelligence agencies and the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and State — with the task of understanding and monitoring any group that is potentially hostile to America. This means tracking the enemy leadership and its financing sources, locating its training facilities, uncovering its links to foreign governments and identifying every head of Qaeda’s global hydra.

More important, this joint body must have the authority and military capability to move quickly and decisively against any terrorist group anywhere on the globe whenever it deems the moment right. While every effort should be taken to secure the prior approval and assistance of governments where our enemies hide, we can no longer remain idle when nations knowingly and willingly provide sanctuary to terrorist networks. This is not about regime change but of precise military action to destroy Al Qaeda networks before they are capable of attacking America. 

We already have a working model: the Joint Special Operations Task Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need a national-level program with a similar construct that consolidates all US Governmental agencies involved in national security under one unified command. By properly resourcing and empowering this organization we will take the offensive in the war against terrorism.

Indeed, as many experts, including those on the 9/11 commission, have recommended, our national security system should be streamlined. There are too many government agencies involved, and thus many uncoordinated actions. I’d start the reform process by consolidating the Departments of Homeland Security and Defense, and then putting this Joint Inter-Agency Task Force under that new organization.

We can no longer rely on passive systems to protect the homeland.  The current arrangement led by the Department of Homeland Security relies on the so-called “Terrorist Watch List,” which contains over a half million people of interest. When the case against one of these people becomes strong enough, he is moved to the “No-Fly” list, which should keep him from entering the country. But as we all witnessed on Christmas Day, this system does not work and the entire approach is suspect. There is no common sense, judgment or quality control applied to any of this, which is why a father’s desperate plea was ignored. By consolidating national security agencies and taking the offensive with the Joint Inter-Agency Task Force, we will better secure America.

Last, I think Congress should declare war on Al Qaeda. After all, Osama bin Laden has already declared war on us. Some may criticize this as merely symbolic — but if we hope to re-energize our national security and counterterrorism efforts, we need Americans to once again understand the urgency of matters and that each of us has a part to play. A declaration of war could re-focus the nation and provide the political consensus necessary to consolidate and restructure the Federal government to win this war.

Of course, as in any war, winning will take much more than military action and we need allies to help with intelligence gathering. Our intentions must be clear and we must convince the world that we are fighting to not only protect our cherished way of life but to save all of civilization from the diabolical designs of Al Qaeda. In that regard, the humanitarian relief effort in Haiti should be considered a successful offensive in the war because with our leadership countries from around the world have converged and collaborated to help a grief-stricken nation recover after devastating natural disaster. When we help lead noble endeavors such as these we provide clarity of our expanded purpose – to help make the world a safer and better place. Such action should convince those Muslim nations and other countries that seem to be “on the fence” in this epic struggle of the righteousness of our cause and of the necessity for immediate concerted action against Al Qaeda. Our cause is just, but our actions must be much smarter, broader and more organized to win.

Gibson recently retired from the Army after rising to the rank of colonel and commanding the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division.