Holy Crap!!! Somebody check the temperature in Hades. Though he avoids saying that Iraq was a mistake. Brooksie gets it right!!
In today's NY Times column.Brooksie tells it like it is.
...When you see that our enemies are primarily an intellectual movement, not a terrorist army, you see why they are in no hurry. With their extensive indoctrination infrastructure of madrassas and mosques, they're still building strength, laying the groundwork for decades of struggle. Their time horizon can be totally different from our own.
As an ideological movement rather than a national or military one, they can play by different rules. There is no territory they must protect. They never have to win a battle but can instead profit in the realm of public opinion from the glorious martyrdom entailed in their defeats. We think the struggle is fought on the ground, but they know the struggle is really fought on satellite TV, and they are far more sophisticated than we are in using it. ...
Now if he'll only come out and say what those who were against the Iraq adventure have been saying. That after invading Afghanistan, the US should have gone after AQ and mounted an ideological campaign to win the hearts and minds of Muslim moderates rather than alienating them.
Except for what I take to be an unwarranted swipe at Juan Cole. I agree with what Brooksie says.