There isn't, to my knowledge a trackable thread of ideas that bears watching which makes a suitable case for a political engagement with Al Qaeda which defeats it peacefully. I've always respected the pacifist case, one the Dalai Lama might make, against OIF, but it hasn't been a case I've kept much track of, if it exists.
I am in the middle of reading (and will finish by the end of lunch today) Lawrence Wright's new article about how the failure of Al Qaeda in Iraq, among other failures, has empowered various radical clerics who once advocated terrorism to turn against their prior ideas. I've always had Lawrence Wright at the top of my reading list to communicate my understanding of the nature of the jihadi enemy, but I don't know that many others may have. I imagine that is partly because I had basically given up hope in reading Matthew Yglesias and Kevin Drum as their comment sections began to sound more and more vacuous. Be that as it may, now that I am pulling back from advocacy to curiosity and analysis, I'm in a better mood to hear such wisdom out, if it exists.
Among the sort that actually have energy remaining after bashing the President, what alternative progress has been in evidence? We've been talking here about unanticipated consequences of war, and on the whole, waging war has hurt Al Qaeda, our mortal enemy, very deeply. What unanticipated consequences of 'waging peace' initiated by dissenting Americans and their 'international community' of dissenters against Bush have hurt Al Qaeda substantially?
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