Tuesday, August 05, 2008

An Open Dear John Letter

Dear Sen. Kerry:

Looks like you were right all along:

Abstract

How do terrorist groups end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that terrorist groups rarely cease to exist as a result of winning or losing a military campaign. Rather, most groups end because of operations carried out by local police or intelligence agencies or because they join the political process. This suggests that the United States should pursue a counterterrorism strategy against al Qa'ida that emphasizes policing and intelligence gathering rather than a "war on terrorism" approach that relies heavily on military force.

Sorry we let the GOP get away with making fun of you for saying this in 2004. Here's hoping we're smarter this time around.

(Signed) The American Electorate

P.S. Kind of interesting how the report's Figure 1 looks like a peace sign, isn't it? If one is willing to look at things from a slightly different perspective, I mean.

RAND Corp: "How Terrorist Groups End," Fig. 1


(h/t: Harry Shearer, starting at about 18:30)

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