Pardon the OT:
The three articles below are the most clear, cogent, concise, intelligent write-ups I've seen of the daunting problems the U.S. faces in dealing with its current enemy. The only part of it that makes me a bit uncomfortable is its base assumption that Bin Laden's organization is essentially the whole story, which I believe to be something of an oversimplification.
But that aside, this series shifts the question from the unanswerable (and uninteresting at this point) "Why do they hate us?" to the much more critical "Exactly what is their strategy and how do we counter it?" I haven't seen it spelled out so succinctly before.
After the countless knee-jerk "nuke 'em now" posts, emotion-based quasi-patriotic rants, bad political cartoons, clueless talking heads on TV and bellicose newspaper editorials, this series of pieces is the only thing I have read that breaks it down clearly and unemotionally, from a strategic and tactical military point of view. No guilt-trips, racism, flag-waving, sweeping generalizations, etc. You are fighting a war. What is your enemy after, what is he going to do, and what do you do to stop him?
If our government isn't thinking EXACTLY like this, we have a serious problem. Unfortunately, we have a serious problem even if they are.
You won't regret reading all three of these articles.
--QS
stratfor.com
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