We havent been fighting a 13-year war. Weve been fighting a new one-year war, 13 times. What now?
In the years leading up to the attacks of 11 September 2001, the west saw al-Qaida rising but didnt address the threat in time. My colleagues and I in the FBI and over at the CIA had been focused on al-Qaida since the mid-1990s. The true threat, however, came from the ideology, not the group.
In the first years after 9/11, the west focused too much on Osama bin Laden and not enough on the bin Ladenism he spawned. We mistook killing the messenger for killing the message. The tactics were understandable repeated targeted strikes at key individuals to keep al-Qaida off balance but our strategy was based on just that: our understanding of them, rather than their understanding of us
Obama has now outlined his strategy to knock down the Isis threat. But the real work starts where it should have in 2001
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