Al Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat

[lrd]

"Al Qaeda: The Many Faces of an Islamist Extremist Threat" ( http://intelligence.house.gov/Media/...mistThreat.pdf ), released yesterday by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ( http://intelligence.house.gov/default.aspx ).

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Interesting report, but I think they still only have it partly right. Al Qaeda may be the most serious terrorist threat facing the US but it should not be the sole target of the conflict but a subset within the effort to destroy, or at least destabilize, the Islamic Fundametalist Movement, its personnel, its breeding stock, its pet goats, its funding, its infrastructure and any evidence, other than a grease stain, that it ever existed. Al Qaeda is the visible military target, but by addressing it militarily we are only responding to the symptom and not the cause. While they seem to have come to this Blinding Flash of the Obvious, they have failed to state that we have lost much of our diplomatic/political capital over the years and our ability to exercise other aspects of our national power such as economic power and informational/psychological power have left us with having to rely on the only other aspect of our national power which is the use of the military to try and keep the lid on things until we are able to use the other elements of national power which are the key in winning this effort. But then I would not expect any politician to point out their own failings which has placed this nation in the position we currently find ourselves. Just my opinion.