[marron]

We do not face a global jihadist "movement" but a series of disparate ethnic and religious conflicts involving Muslim populations, each of which remains fundamentally regional in nature and almost all of which long predate the existence of al-Qaeda.

True enough. It just happens that they operate globally and happen to like killing people, chief among them Americans.

Most of what we call "Al Qaeda" is just that, disparate movements that get help from various national intel organizations among whom Saddam's once figured, and the Soviets before him, and Tehran and Damascus now.

But just as it was impossible to do a complete take-down of Bin Ladin's group without going after Saddam, without putting pressure on Karachi, without pressuring Riyadh, its also going to be impossible to finish the job without separating Iran's mullahs from the institutions of national power there. And pushing Bashir out an upstairs palace window in Damascus.

[arthurus]

Islam is a religion of headhunters, a stoneage mentality with tanks and working on nukes (they have some in Pakistan).