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The Starfish And The Terrorist

This video by Johnathan Rauch is making the rounds.

I think the “starfish” analogy works equally well for the structure of Islamic extremist organizations. That is one of the reasons why it’s seemingly impossible to nail down exactly what a victory in the GWOT would look like. If you kill Bin Ladrn, it not only goes on, but his martyrdom will surly inspire new groups to emerge. As we have seen in both Iraq and Afghanistan, if you eradicate a stronghold, they simply slide (slither?) to a new one. Sure, you could poison the whole sea, but that would just be killing ourselves, as we also swim in it.