THE decision of President George Bush Sr not to continue the push to take over Iraq and take down the Saddam Hussein Government in 1990 was, in effect, a decision that they would have to return to at a later date. Bush, in effect, sentenced another generation to finish the job his generation had started.

Was this decision taken out of a deliberate analysis of cost and lives that would be lost? Or was it simply that he wasn’t ‘the man’ for the job?

The decision not to continue the dismantling of the other garrisons after the fall of ‘Fort Tivoli’ in 2010 was also an incorrect one that showed a lack of political will. It is, however, difficult to lay the blame on anyone specifically as the change of Government was relatively soon after the Security forces operation in the area — first, there was a change of prime minister, followed by a change of the entire Government.

So, although it is harder to lay blame in our situation than in the Iraq example, it definitely is a blunder that results in us still fighting the war that the politicians in the 70s caused. So, here we are now with a few thousand of our nation’s young men and women fighting to exhaustion to defeat the gangs — and little by little it’s happening.

If the current processes and people continue, it is likely that in a decade we could be in striking range of falling within Pan American statistical crime norms. When it is achieved you will hear it is because of “economic and social measures taken to reduce poverty and improve education”, or some other political gibberish.

That won’t be true. It will be because of a sensible strategy carried out by your police force and army who, with rifles in hand, risked their lives and their liberty fighting gangs that our system refuses to designate as terrorists so that we can treat them differently than we can a regular citizen. You notice I said system, not Government.

Our system involves two political parties and a slew of other influencers — local and abroad — who would need to agree to pass this law. We will improve and will — in a decade and a half — likely boast a homicide statistic that is within Pan American norms, provided we continue doing what we are doing now.

We can achieve that aforementioned ambition if we just pass two laws. Two laws that can make the murders of children, and the mass shootings, and the control of our slums by dunce dons less likely, if not unlikely. One of those laws is, as I just said and always say, to allow for the remand of known gang members indefinitely, based on intelligence.

This would require constitutional adjustments, as I have pointed out. Hence, I want them to be designated as domestic terrorists. The model exists in El Salvador, and it’s working like a charm. They didn’t quite use the terrorist designation I am suggesting, which is more from the Americans’ Homeland Security Act, but it’s similar.

The other law that is needed is based on the impact that Jamaicans living overseas are having by giving resources and instructions to the little dunces at home to wage war on our streets. This law would allow any person even attempting to give instructions to people in Jamaica to engage in gang violence to be prosecuted in our courts, after being extradited to our jurisdiction. Here they would serve time in our pigsty of a prison system — not in the American hotel-type facilities. There is precedent for this.

If you try to import narcotics to the United States from any country in the world, you are committing an offence that you can be tried for in an American court, to serve time in an American prison. The same goes for planning terrorist acts against American citizens anywhere on planet Earth, and in outer space. You can be prosecuted. Narcotics traffickers are often referred to as narco terrorists. You think that’s by accident?

The reason Drug Enforcement Agency is so active in Colombia is because you have to go to the source of the problem to fight the problem. Once the criminal leaves us he is out of our reach; there is little or nothing we can do to prevent him from or punish him for conspiring and supplying resources to kill Jamaican citizens. Many return to us on simple immigration violations after years of ordering the murders of dozens of innocent people, and we simply have to allow them to join society. This needs to change.

We somehow have to be able to extend the long arm of our law to the shores of the United States, as theirs extend here. So, who will be the man who makes these changes? Who will step up? Who will admit that normal laws, normal law enforcement practices, and a normal Westminster model judicial system will not achieve normality for another generation? Is it the present Government? Is it the Opposition who will be vying for control of our Parliament next year?

Well, we will know by their words. If you see anyone leaning in the direction I am proposing then you will know who is the man or woman for the job.

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