Strategerizing: Military intellectuals envision a 50-year “Long War” against al Qaeda consisting of counterinsurgency operations spanning Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Horn of Africa, the Philippines and beyond, Tom Hayden discusses in The Nation. “Comparing al Qaeda in AfPak to al Qaeda in Iraq . . . illustrates both the pros and cons of building U.S. strategy in South Asia around a counterinsurgency campaign in Afghanistan,” Brian Fishman suggests in Foreign Policy. If Obama submits to Veep Joe Biden’s campaign to shift the focus from the Taliban in Afghanistan to al Qaeda in Pakistan, “as I suspect he will, is there any reason to think America won’t simply preside over the rebirth of al Qaeda? Probably not,” Thomas P.M. Barnett blogs for Esquire Magazine. “Al Qaeda is implementing its game plan in the South Asian war theater as a part of its broader campaign against American global hegemony that began with [9/11],” the organization’s “guerilla chief” tells Asia Times.
Oct 242009
