I've always felt that given the ingenuity and talent present in the ranks of al Qaeda regarding the manner in which to plan, coordinate and carryout attacks, not to mention the level of education of many of its Core members, that their talents would be better suited in coming up with solutions to the problems that afflict their societies. Of course, given the climate and repression under which they live, they have identified the autocrats and dictators as the main problem, and the US because of the support it provides these as the main obstacle of lasting change. That is one of the things that we miss when debating the GWOT. Emotions get in the way, and we seek to satisfy them by focusing solely on the terrorist action, yet failing to realize the things that drive them. Most of the time people confuse understanding for empathy and immediately blame you for being a terrorist sympathizer. In truth, understading the roots of the problem can do more to resolve it and drain the swamp than simply labeling it all terrorism. Yes, we need to kill those who refuse to lay down their arms, we will never win over al Qaeda, but we must ensure that we can create the conditions so that less people are radicalized than we are killing. To do that, we need to examine and resolve the many grievances (those we can do something about, like the Israeli-Palestinian situation) to ensure the se issues are not around anymore to drive the next generation of suicide bombers. Why am I posting these here when my commented was more closely related to the actual post,I don'tknow, but something about it got me going.