Sorry, Charlie. This Is Michael Vickers's War.

The Washington Post ^ | December 28, 2007 | Ann Scott Tyson

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

In the Pentagon's newly expanded Special Operations office, a suite of sterile gray cubicles on the "C" ring of the third floor, Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael G. Vickers is working to implement the U.S. military's highest-priority plan: a global campaign against terrorism that reaches far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan.

The wide-ranging plan details the targeting of al-Qaeda-affiliated networks around the world and explores how the United States should retaliate in case of another major terrorist attack. The most critical aspect of the plan, Vickers said in a recent interview, involves U.S. Special Operations forces working through foreign partners to uproot and fight terrorist groups.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I know this article is almost two years old, but after almost non-stop MSM adulation of that Marxist empty suit Obama, I felt the need to post an article about a REAL hero who has actually done some remarkable things for his country over the years.

If anyone has read Charlie Wilson's War, then the name Mike Vickers will be instantly recognizable. Although a lowly GS-11 at the time, he was Gust Avrakotos chief strategist who out-smarted Soviet General Valentin Varennikov and helped drive the Soviet 40th Army out of Afghanistan.

I'm glad to see that Mike is still around and fighting global terrorism while Obama is dawdling and basking in his Peace Prize nonsense. Makes me feel a bit better this morning...

Michael G. (“Mike”) Vickers was nominated as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict & Interdependent Capabilities by President Bush on April 4, 2007, and was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 23, 2007. President Obama announced on February 26, 2009, that Mr. Vickers would continue to serve as ASD (SO/LIC&IC).

Mr. Vickers is the senior civilian advisor to the Secretary of Defense on the operational employment and capabilities of special operations forces. He is also the senior civilian adviser on counterterrorism, irregular warfare, counternarcotics, and special activities. In his Interdependent Capabilities role, he advises the Secretary of Defense on the operational employment and capabilities of strategic and conventional forces.

Mr. Michael G. Vickers, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict & Interdependent Capabilities (SO/LIC&IC)

The Man Behind Irregular Warfare Push: Mike Vickers

Adviser: Surge not answer in Afghanistan

Michael Vickers's War

[MestaMachine]

EXCEPT that the enemy now resides in the White House and has a Blackberry. He’s got a person at the Pentagon, a muslim sympathizer, with access to every possible scenario we might have used in the past, are using today, or plan to use in the future. Nothing goes in and nothing goes out without his personal liason knowing every single last detail.
Nothing we do anymore is secret. Nothing we do will have any effect because this administration has declared all out war on ALL of our intel services and given aid and comfort to the enemy.
If we do not excorcise this demon, the result will be devastating to us and to the world.

[Tallguy]

Interesting article, but I found this paragraph somewhat curious and out-of-place:

But while local forces can be far more effective in countering terrorism in their regions, creating the forces must be done carefully, said Thomas, the former defense planner. "The last thing we want to do is create a bunch of right-wing goon squads that go out and shoot jihadists with very little legitimacy."

Now why do you suppose the Washington Post editor elected to charactarize the politics of the counter-insurgency forces in that??? Besides, aren't political leanings of the COIN force a little irrelevent when dealing with Islamists?

What's it going to take before the intellectual elites in this country "take off the gloves?" I fear that they are waiting for a large-scale Chem/Bio/Nuke attack on US soil before any significant strategic change is made.

[MNJohnnie]

What's it going to take before the intellectual elites in this country "take off the gloves?" I fear that they are waiting for a large-scale Chem/Bio/Nuke attack on US soil before any significant strategic change is made.

Depends on where it goes off. If it goes off in any "Red" counties that voted for McCain, I suspect the faux intellectuals of this nation will cheer.

[PIF]

“I fear that they are waiting for a large-scale Chem/Bio/Nuke attack on US soil before any significant strategic change is made.”

They aren't waiting, but actively working to create as much chaos as possible - hoping from the confusion and disarray that Something Big will happen on US soil - and from which they will miraculously escape to implement the significant change you mention.

Under this scenario, the middle east will become a depopulated highly radioactive zone. This will solve the Jewish problem there, while other Jews are rounded up in other countries since they are the root cause of the “problem”.

The Hauge will take over world government, making nice with Russia and China - both of which will have “solved” their internal problems by ruthlessly eliminating the source - Muslims, Mecca no longer existing having been hit, ironically, by an off-course Iranian nuclear missile.

Meanwhile in the US, things will not go according to plan, and the country will be plunged into a second, and like the first, very bloody civil war. A bounty will be placed on Hussein's head, but he will escape to Kenya, later dying under “unusual circumstances” in obscurity.

[Tallguy]

Depends on where it goes off. If it goes off in any "Red" counties that voted for McCain, I suspect the faux intellectuals of this nation will cheer.

I would point-out that the track record of the Islamic terrorists relative to attacks on the US is that they make no distinction between Conservative or Liberal. If you are an American, that's good enough. If you or your surroundings are a National Symbol, even better. This is another reason why our elites worry about our using "Right Wing" counter-insurgency forces is such a joke. If the enemy doesn't recognize the distinction, why should we worry about it. A bullet is a bullet.

[jwparkerjr]

re: explores how the United States should retaliate in case of another major terrorist attack

How sad, America has lost the will to use the tactics that would normally follow an attack, BEFORE the attack, to prevent it.

Whatever will and force that would follow an attack is exactly what should be used to prevent the attack in the first place.

Or, put another way, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[MNJohnnie]

You can point it out but I doubt our faux intellectuals in the media will recognize the validity of your point.

As they proved by their conduct during the Iraq war, domestic politics is far more important to them then any minor foreign concern like Islamo fascism.