Brunswick Beacon, 08.11.22
Ayman al-Zawahiri masterminded 9/11, replaced Bin Laden as Al-Qaeda’s leader, and
became the FBI’s most wanted terrorist. We’re safer because he’s gone.
In April, Pres. Biden learned al-Zawahiri was in Afghanistan. On July 1, Biden and his advisers pored over a plan to kill him. Biden was “deeply engaged in the briefing and immersed in the intelligence,” a senior official said, asking “detailed questions about what we knew and how we knew it.” Biden studied a scale model of al-Zawahiri’s house constructed by intelligence officials, questioning its lighting, construction materials and how weather would affect operations.
On July 25, Biden reassembled his team in the Situation Room and evaluated the latest intelligence. Again, he pressed at a “granular level,” the official said, about the room layout, the position of windows and doors, and ways to minimize civilian casualties. Then, he authorized a “precise tailored airstrike.”
Five days later, two missiles carrying blades instead of bombs struck the balcony of al-Zawahiri’s Kabul house, killing him and nobody else.
“Justice has been delivered,” Biden said. “No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, The United States will find you and take you out.”
Biden’s success is dramatic proof of America’s state-of-the-art ‘over-the-horizon’ counterterrorism capabilities that help us fight terrorism anywhere on Earth. As a veteran, I consider it a triple victory. Endless occupations of hostile countries by American troops cause unnecessary American deaths, are unsustainably expensive, and spawn more generations of terrorists.
Republicans have grudgingly praised the intelligence community without crediting Biden. But George W. Bush and Donald Trump led the same intelligence community for 12 years and failed to kill either Bin Laden or al-Zawahiri. Pres. Obama got Bin Laden in 27 months. Biden took just 18 months to get al-Zawahiri.
Leadership, engagement, and attention to detail matter. Thank you, Joe Biden!
Rich Cooper, Vietnam Vet
Leland
Comments