David Webb: A path to security

The world just revisited a dark day: Sept. 11, 2001. The victims and family members can never be fully compensated emotionally or financially for this loss. While it was not the first Muslim terrorist attack on American soil, many more attacks have been carried out since then despite the countless attacks that have been prevented. The question of whether we are safer today than we were 15 years ago, or even in the last seven and a half years of the Obama administration, will be debated by politicians, pundits and Americans in general, but the answer is not simply either/or.

We are safer in many ways, with the help of technology and a more aware public, even as some continue to deny publicly that the issue of terrorism exists. On the other hand, we are less safe because Muslim terrorist organizations like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al Qaeda and others, including lone actors, are often only limited by their evil imaginations.

{mosads}One of the dangers is hiding our heads in the sand, as many on the left choose to do while executing marketing campaigns rather than the effective combined tactics that make up an overall strategy. There is no cookie-cutter way to defeat radical and political Islam, but a key component is that Islam must fight the radical elements within itself.

If Hillary Clinton is elected president, she will continue the same failed policies of the Obama administration. There are often bad choices, as we see in Syria relative to Russia and Iran and whatever elements are left of the Free Syrian Army. There is not an outcome in Syria that will not leave, at least for some time, a bad actor such as Bashar Assad or Vladimir Putin in a position of power. It is, however, for the sake of stability, a better outcome than ISIS and other radical Muslim groups with their established caliphate taking over.

Clinton and Obama deliberately destabilized Libya, and now Italy and Europe will pay the price. In Libya and sub-Saharan Africa, a military destruction of radical groups is necessary in spite of the lack of appetite in the United States for military action. This is only the first step, and while I’m not suggesting nation-building, there will be elements of stabilizing a society in order to give the region a chance. If this is done successfully, these societies will be able to join the war against the expansion of radical Islam elsewhere in the world.

In Turkey, we must now admit that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on the path to dictatorship and creating a haven for radical elements who will cross the bridge to Europe, as Turkey is often called. An honest discussion of the role of NATO in the fight against the threat to Europe will include working with the European Union to craft both an internal and external strategy. Added to this are the hegemonic moves by Putin to rebuild Russian nationalism, which can further destabilize elements of the EU and allow for the growth of a radical Islam guerrilla warfare strategy on the continent.

To support the struggle against threats around the globe, we need a better global economy and a much stronger American economy. For 15 years, America has had anemic growth rate of less than 2 percent, when we need to grow at a rate of more than 4 percent. Clinton’s economic policies are not pro-growth, but Donald Trump does have a pro-growth strategy. The debates within Trump’s economic policy team on free trade deals such as NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership and on domestic economic policy constitute the type of approach that resulted in the success of the John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan administrations. Think about it — Democrats have written off JFK’s pro-growth success because it doesn’t fit their liberal Keynesian tax-and-spend economic policies.

America will survive, but some areas of the world are in doubt. We have faced evil before and won, but the question is always at what cost. It is the challenge that our free society faces and the strength of being able to recover and grow from adversity.

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.