Killing Terrorists Enjoys Bipartisan Support

To return briefly to Liz Cheney for a moment. Yesterday she suggested that Democrats are "uncomfortable" with the idea of killing al Qaeda terrorists. "I think they really are uncomfortable with the notion that we have to capture and kill al-Qaeda," she said.

Cheney goes onto say that much of this discomfort stems from their desire to treat terrorism as a law enforcement matter and not as an act of war.

I think there is an element of truth in this, at least insofar as it concerns Congressional Democrats and insofar as it relates to the legal framework of the war (or non-war) on terror.

However, Cheney's charge collapses at the level of executive branch Democrats who have, since President Clinton, shown a willingness to use lethal force against al Qaeda (the effectiveness of said force is another matter). President Clinton let fly with several cruise missile salvos against bin Laden when he was in office. Under President Obama, there has been a serious expansion of Predator Drone attacks in Pakistan that are, as the Wall Street Journal approvingly editorialized, killing a lot of terrorists.

I'd also note that the U.S. killed a large number of terrorists inside Iraq from 2003-2006 without making a noticeable dent in the insurgency. It was only until Iraqi's Sunni population decided they hated al Qaeda more than us that we began to make serious inroads. The notion that it's about wracking up a body count is belied by the success of the surge - a success that conservatives like Liz Cheney have been eager to embrace.

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