A U.S. air strike has killed ahmed godane, the leader of Somalia\’s al shabaab – one of the various al-qaeda affiliated or al qaeda-like terrorist organizations which have sprung up over the past four or five years.
That\’s good news. Any time we can take out the apparent head of a terrorist group we should be happy about it.
Now here\’s the bad news. al shabaab still exists. It will have a new leader with the organization intact. And every other one of the terrorist groups referenced above – most notably the al qaeda-spawned ISIS (or ISIL if you prefer), are intact as well.
That is because air strikes can take out individual terrorists and individual targets. But they cannot take out the terrorist groups themselves. That only happens with ground troops – whether ours or someone else\’s…utilizing significant U.S. support.
So as we celebrate the good news that godane is dead, let\’s keep our heads on straight about the reality that it has not changed the terrorist threat. Because if we pretend that air strkes alone can stop the terrorist threat, we are that much closer to not having our heads on straight … or any way at all.
