Fighting Terrorism from Afar

WITHIN THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE, AND IN corners of the U.S. military and intelligence bureaucracy, it is the phrase of the moment: “over the horizon.”

The expression refers to efforts to counter terrorism from afar, without troops on the ground, and it has been in the defense lexicon dating back to the Cold War. The appeal is obvious: When dealing with threats like Al-Qaeda or like-minded terrorist groups, why bother with dangerous, forward deployed missions in unstable places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or North Africa, when you can launch a Tomahawk missile from somewhere in the Arabian Sea and be done with it? “Over the horizon,” to Joe Biden, means the end of “endless wars.” You can hit the enemy from above, and from far away.