Issue Position: Terrorism and Wars

Issue Position

As a Combat Decorated Veteran, I understand the cruel cost of war on our young soldiers all too clearly.

As a businessman, I understand the cost of wars on our Economy.

As a Patriot, I understand the cost of keeping our Freedom.

Like my Father, I served my country. My father fought in World War II in the Pacific and Received the Purple Heart for injuries from a mortar attack. I received a Bronze Star in Viet Nam.

Since the 1950's We and Democracies around the world have been trying, with limited success, to fight Genocide, Dictatorships that violate human rights and Terrorists. For years the tools to combat the evil in the world have been soldiers with guns, tanks and bombs. As our world has changed and become more globally connected the forces of evil have changed also. Battlefields have moved from the open plains into the cities and villages and homes of civilians. Our enemies have changed from soldiers on clearly defined battle lines to cowards that hide behind school children or fanatics that hijack aircraft and attack civilians on our own soil.

While I am not yet privy to the insider discussions at the Pentagon, I can clearly see that this approach is too costly in lives and money. It appears that we pushed terrorists out of Iraq and into Afghanistan where we are bogged down, as the Russians were before us. If you've ever played the "Whack a Mole" game at the county fair, you get an idea of what might happen next. Terrorists are well funded, fanatical and not tied to the soil they fight from. Using a ground based military strategy against them will not work in the long term. They will simply move to another remote, unorganized country and start up operations against us and our allies again.

We also need to strengthen our non-military response to terrorism. I believe our State Department is underutilized and underfunded in this area. Our Military is appropriate for a response to violence but our State Department must be used to find ways to prevent violence. We must respect the sovereignty of all nations and put more efforts into understanding the factors that lead to terrorism.

Fighting a ground war in remote locations is too costly in lives and dollars. We should shift our focus from ground troops to funding a greatly expanded intelligence operation. Along with expanded intelligence we should use our technology guided weapons to make surgical strikes on the bases and key supplies of our enemies. This would lower the cost of our fight for freedom in both lives and dollars.

We also should increase our efforts with our allies to provide better education and living conditions for the peaceful citizens of the underdeveloped countries that will potentially harbor new terrorists or support new dictators.

We should continue to treat the symptoms of ignorance and hate by fighting with better intelligence and surgical strikes while we begin to treat the underlying cause of the dissention through improved education and living conditions.

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