Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

CIA veteran details flaws of U.S. foreign policy, war on terror
No Author Given
Oklahoma Daily, U. Oklahoma
May 04, 2009

The U.S. will have a chance to defeat its radical Islamist enemies and restore U.S. national security only if the government adopts a non-interventionist foreign policy outlined by the Founding Fathers, CIA veteran Michael Scheuer told an audience Saturday at the University of Oklahoma's Reynolds Performing Arts Center.

Scheuer, now retired after 22 years with the agency, was chief of the Osama bin Laden tracking unit from 1996 to 1999, and adviser to the unit from 2001 to 2004.

He said the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not served U.S. national interests and have only harmed national security. These wars are the result of an interventionist foreign policy trend followed by elected leaders for the past 35 years, he said.

“Such knee-jerk interventionism has been the hallmark of U.S. policy, especially in the Muslim world, since at least 1973,” Scheuer said. “And all it guarantees is endless war with Muslims.”

Scheuer said such policies have helped Al-Qaeda defeat America by putting the nation in huge debt, sapping the strength of U.S. military and intelligence by the nation spreading its forces too thin and creating an atmosphere of hyper-partisanship.

Scheuer said Al-Qaeda has the upper hand in the War on Terror because of the failure of U.S. government and “academic and media apologists” to understand exactly why Al-Qaeda targets the country.

“It is likely that the maintenance of Washington’s prevailing assumption that Muslims hate Americans for who we are and how we live, rather than what the [U.S.] government does in the Islamic world, will lead to nothing less than a vast and willful case of self-deception that ultimately will yield calamity for the nation,” Scheuer said.

Scheuer said Al-Qaeda targets the U.S. because of six aspects of its foreign policy: blind U.S. support of Israel and indifference to Palestinian Arabs; U.S. support for countries that oppress Muslims like China and India; the presence of U.S. forces on the Arabian Peninsula; the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan; U.S. political pressure on Arab states to keep oil prices low; and U.S. support for tyrannical governments in Muslim countries.

In 2007, bin Laden cited Scheuer’s book, “Imperial Hubris,” which details these issues, as a resource Americans should read to understand Al-Qaeda’s war with the U.S.

In order to escape endless war with militant Islamists, Scheuer said the U.S. should return to an independent and non-interventionist foreign policy.

“We must return to the founders’ goal for America: that is to be the well wisher of freedom and independence for all, but the champion and vindicator only of our own,” he said.

Scheuer believes the U.S. can only achieve this by investing in alternative energy and avoiding foreign and religious wars. He also said Congress must reverse the expansion of executive power, and the U.S. government must stop trying to spread democracy abroad.

“Having negated all but the ability of the U.S. to abstain from wars for oil and major wars between Arabs and Israelis, the U.S. political elite has completed its axis of doom for Americans through their apparently limitless zeal for overseas democracy crusades, a perversion of what America stands for that can only lead to war and more war,” Scheuer said.

Scheuer made a distinction between non-interventionism and isolationism, saying the former would still allow Americans to combat threats, including militant Islamists.

He said the fundamental struggle of Islamics is with oppressive domestic or regional players who are aligned with America, but because it is seen as propping up those players, the focus shifts to the U.S.

“Non-intervention would strike a direct and staggering blow to the center of gravity of Al-Qaeda and other Islamic organizations,” Scheuer said. “Without U.S. intervention as their reliable foil ... their attention would begin to shift back to the targets against which their violence should be rightfully directed.”

Though President Barack Obama seems to have a more open approach in his foreign policy, Scheuer said he sees little difference between Obama’s policy and the policies of his predecessors.

“[The Obama administration] is still tied to the six policies that motivate Al-Qaeda to attack the U.S.,” Scheuer said.

Scheuer worked for the CIA for 22 years, resigning from the agency in November 2004 in protest over the 9/11 Commission conclusion which found no one responsible for any intelligence failures that led to the terrorism attacks.

Part of his frustration with the 9/11 Commission stemmed from 10 failed opportunities to kill or capture bin Laden during his run as chief of the bin Laden tracking unit because of the Clinton administration’s refusal to authorize action.

Scheuer encouraged students to think for themselves rather than relying on partisan leaders, academia and popular media outlets to educate them on foreign policy.

“The impression I want to leave on students is to think for themselves,” Scheuer said. “The important thing to consider is that we’re at war with Al-Qaeda because of what our government does, it provides the enemy’s motivation. Otherwise, we’re going to be fighting an enemy that doesn’t exist.”

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