Word: swamp
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...what comes next. It's hard to plan D-day against an enemy with no beaches and no borders, and when wise heads counsel that the most effective counterattack may be the least publicly satisfying kind--the quiet intelligence and financial and psychological warfare that can best "drain the swamp" where the terrorists hide. Would a large-scale attack demonstrate American resolve or play into the hands of those hoping to create a martyr? "Not only do you need the courage of your convictions," Adlai Stevenson once said. "Sometimes you need the courage of your doubts...
...Assume that America?s recent run of easy conquests continues - and it won?t be long at all before Tom Ridge sinks quietly into a swamp of bureaucracy, the recession is over and the economy is back and more robust than ever. Our fundamentals remain strong and our consumers have short memories and long habits. We have a capable Fed and a White House that seems to understand that picking winners and losers is not something the government is known for doing well...
...Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said Wednesday that the campaign would combine military, political, intelligence and diplomatic initiatives to "drain the swamp they live in." And that's a sound principle of counterinsurgency, which recognizes that the resilience of an unconventional enemy derives from the support and succor he procures from his environment. Terrorist groups such as Bin Laden will seek out the most supportive environment for their sanctuaries; isolating and destroying them requires turning their environment against them...
...Whose swamp is it anyway...
...past half century of counterinsurgency around the globe confirms that "draining the swamp" is a predominantly political rather than military process. Afghanistan works as a safe haven for Bin Laden precisely because it is a failed state, a land scorched by war and run by an extremist militia inured against most traditional levers of foreign policy. But the swamp is a lot wider than Afghanistan - indeed, it should be imagined less in territorial terms than as a microclimate. Bin Laden's networks are dotted throughout the Arab and Muslim world, where they profit immensely from a climate of deep-seated...