lucius_gantt_1.jpgIt seems to me that every time the United States or some other Western nation decides to invade or talks about invading another country, there is a terrorist response.”

Not too long ago, the United States obtained permission from supportive African countries to set up a place to operate and launch predator drones to kill terrorists in Africa.

That effort, however, has not curtailed organizations like Al Qaeda from recruiting members, training members or sending Al Qaeda fighters to other parts of the world to fight Americans and America supporters.

I thought Kenya was a peaceful place in the Motherland but last weekend Al Shabab militants, allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, killed more than 60 innocent people out shopping at a Nairobi mall. The terrorist group claims the murders were a response to the Kenyan government’s sending troops to fight in the civil war in Somalia.

Well, history shows that this recent trend of terrorists going from country to country killing people was not always so prevalent.

Al Qaeda seems to be everywhere these days. But the terrorist group was not in Iraq until an invasion resulted in the downfall of Saddam

Hussein. Al Qaeda wasn’t a force in Libya until an invasion resulted in the death of Muammar Gaddafi and Al Qaeda wasn’t running rampant in Syria until Western governments began to arm rebels in Syria in an attempt to remove the Bashar Al-Assad.

The White House’s decision to go along with a Russian proposed deal regarding Syria’s chemical weapons saved President Barack Obama from a Congressional vote to invade Syria that he surely would have lost.

The deal also saved Russia and Iran from getting into an unnecessary conflict that may have started World War III.

Assad is no longer a so-called “dead man walking” and the U.S. probably doesn’t want you to know but the deal, according to Syria, also calls for the United States to quit threatening Syria with a missile strike and for the U.S. to stop sending arms to the rebels.

Another important aspect of the deal will allow Syrian airports to openly allow shipments into the country from Russia and Iran that will allow the Syrian military to fight off the armed opposition who Assad has said all along are Al Qaeda people shooting and killing Syria soldiers and civilians.

The idea that the United States is the world’s policeman is tired, outdated and possibly harmful to relations with other countries and denigrates support for American military action from United States taxpayers.

Congress and the president are quick to consider launching multi-million-dollar bombs on smaller countries but slow to appropriate tax dollars for jobs, for education, for housing and for health care.

If the government wants to fight terrorism on foreign lands, it shouldn’t send teenage soldiers; instead, it should send gang members from Chicago or closet Klansmen from Philadelphia. Send the fools who want to shoot people and desire to get shot at. I do not want terrorists to respond to invasions by bombing my little country town.


*Lucius Gantt, a political consultant based in Tallahassee, is author of the book Beast Too: Dead Man Writing which is available at Amazon.com. You can like The Gantt Report page on Facebook and contact Gantt at allworldconsultants.net