Would you believe October 2008?

For those who don’t believe that the President’s “War on Terror” is more political than practical and more substance than smoke and mirrors, ask yourself about the contents of a recent memos issued by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England.

Beginning in December 2006, England wrote a memo detail 8 priorities for the fiscal year. Number 1 was winning the “Global War on Terror”. Number 3 was “Meet the Challenge of Improvised Explosive Devices.” But, an interesting note to all this was the following:

England warned that meeting these goals “will inform our decisions on individual senior employee performance ratings.” That means their paychecks.

However, England’s February 15 memo was even more enlightening.

“At noon on Jan. 20, 2009,” he wrote, “many of the civilian Department of Defense (DOD) leadership positions will transition to a new Administration Team. This change, coupled with the normal rotation of military leadership, could disrupt many of the management process changes currently underway in the Department.”

So “to ensure that warfighters and taxpayers receive maximum benefit from on-going initiatives,” England suggested, “it would be highly desirable to complete current projects by the summer/fall of 2008.”

Did you catch that? Because election season is coming up, we might want to end the “War on Terror” in a timely manner? From an administration that continually rejects calls for timelines in just one conflict, in Iraq, here you have them talking about wrapping up the entire “War on Terror” in the next 18 months.

Now, if I’ve heard the President correctly, this is the most important conflict of our time? So, how can anyone in his administration propose ending it so quickly? Are they, perhaps, suggesting that we…gasp…”cut and run” in the “War on Terror”.

Or, perhaps, this is a glimpse into the true nature of this initiative — use it to maintain political power and manipulate fear for votes.

Well, mark your calendar…the “War on Terror” may soon be coming to an end.

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