The Gortons and Slades - Washington Secretary of State

the nAtuRe of the eneMy 359
down fiefdoms and creating creative teams able to think like the enemy.
Not only does intelligence win wars, it can prevent wars. Information
must be collated and shared, telltale indicators developed and monitored.
What the counterintelligence community really needs, Gorton says, is a
few Tom Clancys. 6
Gorton barely suppressed a shudder when the commission learned
that Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the mastermind of 9/11, had even more
ambitious plans. The 76-story Bank of America Tower in downtown Seattle,
where some 5,000 worked, was one of the original targets, together
with a skyscraper in L.A., nuclear plants, the White House or the Capitol.
Mohammad suggested simultaneously hijacking 10 planes. Bin Laden
authorized the scaled-down mission. 7
A LifeLong student of histoRy, Gorton had strong feelings about defining
“the nature of the enemy.” Kerrey was of the same mind. Gorton
drafted an overview and worked with Kerrey to polish it. For the chapter
outlining a global strategy to combat terrorism, the commission voted
unanimously to substitute their version for the language drafted by the
staff. Kerrey and Gorton wrote:
Because the Muslim world has fallen behind the West politically, economically
and militarily for the past three centuries, and because few
tolerant or secular Muslim democracies provide alternative models for
the future, Bin Ladin’s message finds receptive ears. It has attracted
active support from thousands of disaffected young Muslims and resonates
powerfully with a far larger number who do not actively support
his methods. The resentment of America and the West is deep, even
among leaders of relatively successful Muslim states.
Tolerance, the rule of law, political and economic openness, the extension
of greater opportunities to women—these cures must come from
within Muslim societies themselves. The United States must support
such developments. But this process is likely to be measured in decades,
not years. . . .
Islam is not the enemy. It is not synonymous with terror. Nor does
Islam teach terror. America and its friends oppose a perversion of Islam,
not the great world faith itself. 8
To Gorton’s great annoyance, Barack Obama—like Bush and Clinton before
him—“keeps telling Muslims what true Islam believes in. Utter nonsense!
We are not going to tell Muslims what Islam requires of them.
They are going to have to do that themselves. This war is going to be over