Change in plans

The Bush administration has launched a high-level review of its efforts to battle terrorism, aimed at moving away from a policy that has stressed efforts to capture and kill Al Qaeda leaders and toward what an official called a broader ''strategy against violent extremism."

The shift is meant to recognize the transformation of Al Qaeda over the past three years into a far more amorphous and difficult-to-target organization than the group that struck the United States in 2001. Critics say the review followed months of delay and lost opportunities while the administration left key counterterrorism jobs unfilled and argued internally over how to confront the spread of the Al Qaeda effort.

President Bush's top adviser on terrorism, Frances Fragos Townsend, said in an interview that the review is needed to take into account the ''ripple effect" from targeting Al Qaeda leaders.

[...]

  Boston.com article

We couldn't catch the evil geniuses: BinLaden, Zarqawi, Zawahri (haven't heard a peep about him lately, have you?). Therefore, we need to change our advertising.

The ripple effect from targeting the leaders? All those people are joining the fight against us because we're targeting a few Qa'ida leaders? All those people resisting the occupation are Qa'ida?

Where do we come up with these brilliant thinkers and strategists?

Here's one you can be sure we would never find in our "high-level" team of reviewers:

The so-called global war on terrorism does not exist, a high-ranking army officer has declared in a speech that challenges the conventional political wisdom.

In a frank speech, Brigadier Justin Kelly dismissed several of the central tenets of the Iraq war and the war on terrorism, saying the "war" part is all about politics and terrorism is merely a tactic.

[...]

  SMH.com Australia article