Iraq War and Nuclear Terrorism
Published by The Guilfordian on August 14, 2007
"September 11th signaled the most serious threat to this country's security since the Second World War," said Brig. Gen. John Johns, on Sept. 3 in Bryan Jr. Auditorium. "It was very important that we judged the exact nature of that threat. Now we're in Iraq and we are fighting the wrong war."
In a lecture and discussion organized by the College Democrats, Johns and his colleague, Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, both of whom served in Vietnam, voiced concerns about the Iraq war and nuclear terrorism at home.
"My study of the French in Indochina and in Algeria convinced me that foreign combat forces cannot kill radicals and avoid alienating the population," said Johns. "You defeat radicals by marginalizing them. If you dry up the swamp, you can kill the alligators."
According to Johns, in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, America was in a strong position to marginalize Islamic radicals.
"100,000 people marched in Tehran the day after 9/11- against Osama Bin Laden," said Johns. "A prominent left-wing French newspaper had a headline 'We Are All Americans Now.' The radicals were isolated. We had the world behind us, including most of the Islamic world. What did we do? We marched into Iraq. Now we are isolated."
Johns and Gard, both retired from the service and working for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, argued that the American military was unsuited for its post-9/11 role. The military was designed to fight the Soviet Union in Western Europe and was unprepared for the Iraqi insurgency.
"We conducted military operations against the insurgency as though we were fighting a conventional war," said Gard, who saw combat service in Korea as well as Vietnam. "This meant employing a lot of firepower, which means a lot of civilians were killed. In a tribal society, if you kill someone, all the males in their extended family are coming after you."
Both generals are long-standing critics of the Bush administration's Iraq war policy. In 2005, Johns and Gard wrote a pamphlet responding to arguments for staying in Iraq, including the charge that U.S. soldiers would have died for nothing.
"What is worse then soldiers dying in vain is even more soldiers dying in vain," the two wrote. "Soldiers die in vain when we, citizens and leaders alike, do not honor and reflect on their sacrifices, and when we fail to learn from our mistakes."
Gard focused on the horrors of nuclear terrorism, Al Qaeda, and the troubling lack of focus on homeland security due to present preoccupation with Iraq. Osama Bin Laden considers it his religious duty to obtain weapons of mass destruction to bring about an "American Hiroshima," said Gard.
"Consider the unthinkable but not unlikely event of the explosion of a 10 kiloton weapon in Times Square," said Gard. "About half a million people would be killed outright. Another half million killed from radiation and falling debris. The entire area would be uninhabitable. It would make 9/11 look like a bump in the road."
After the lecture, the floor was opened for discussion. Senior peace and conflict studies major Garrett Fitzgerald asked the generals how America might regain moral capital after the Iraq war.
"We could listen to the rest of the world and quit thumbing our nose at them," said Gard. "The French told us not to go into Vietnam; we didn't listen. They told us not to go into Iraq, so we stopped eating French fries. That is childish - take your ball and go home."
"There is a saying that peace can never come from the barrel of a gun. Neither can national security," said Fitzgerald afterwards. "It was refreshing to hear that echoed by two former generals."
Johns concluded the discussion with a final warning about the presidential candidates for 2008.
"I'm very disturbed by all the presidential candidates," said Johns. "They all talk about increasing our military by 300,000. Why? I worked for 47 years in the Department of Defense. I'm for a strong national security. But the threat we face is not a military threat. This is a war of ideas and we are losing big time."
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