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Entry: The Pentagon Needs a Choreographer Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/the_pentagon_needs_a_choreographer#33219 Post contents: There should be one overriding strategic goal: prevent future terrorist attacks. This is even more important than "revenge" strictly speaking. Not responding in any way to the 9/11 attacks other than by appeasing al Qaeda would not have served this goal. Terror-bombing random parts of the Arab and Muslim world would not either. Killing al Qaeda's leadership, foiling its operations, upsetting its finances, stopping its state sponsors, and reducing its stature in the Arab and Muslim world are all part of the tableau. A certain finesse is needed operationally, but, equally important, serious attention to the image we're projecting is important in connection with operations at every level. All of our operations should be geared around the fundamental X Factor in this whole caper: domestic and Arab/Muslim public opinion who form al Qaeda's financial and logistical support and source of recruits. Instead of building up al Qaeda into the second coming of the Third Reich, we should treat them dismissively, as a bunch of incompetent, unusually lucky, and fundamentally selfish Keystone Cops. Of course, this isn't entirely true, but it's more true than alternatives, and, more improtant, operations that demonstrate these attributes of al Qaeda would improve our overall strategic aim. One of the best little examples of this, perhaps unwittingly, was the Khalid Sheik Mohammad photo in his oversized wife-beater, looking like a pathetic guy who just lost to running quads in an all night game of Hold 'Em. Sent at: 2008 12 02