Fish Got To Swim

For John, BLUF:  To "win the war" on terrorism, we have to dry up the water in which the terrorists swim.  How do we do that?

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This is a report out of the Jay Leno show, by Mr Eric Pfeiffer, of Yahoo! News.  It was President Obama doing his first interview following the recent decision to close US Embassies following intelligence warnings of a possible AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) attack.

As my youngest Brother characterized it, "Some time things don't come out quite right":

Americans should proceed with vacations in a “prudent way, “ Mr. Obama said during the taped appearance, and check the State Department Web site for updates. “The odds of dying in a terrorist attack,” he added, “are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately.”

Per the article, President Obama also denied that the US Federal Government does domestic spying:

Obama denied that the U.S. has a domestic spying program but said the work done by the National Security Agency (NSA) is a “critical component” in keeping the country safe from outside threats.

"We don’t have a domestic spying program,” he said.  “What we do have is some mechanisms that can track a phone number or an email address that is connected to a terrorist attack.  That information is useful."

In other news, from Doyle McManus, writing in The LA Times, we have:

According to some scholars, Osama Bin Laden's successor, Ayman Zawahiri, always thought it was more cost-effective to strike U.S. embassies in the region than to attempt attacks inside the U.S.

Of course, if it turns out that such an approach doesn't work, someone will come up with a new one.  The real question is what will cause the people in the area to reject AQAP, thus depriving them of a way to survival.  This is the key point, and Mao talks to it in his book, On Guerrilla Warfare, Chapter 6, "The Political Problems Of Guerrilla Warfare".

Many people think it impossible for guerrillas to exist for long in the enemy's rear.  Such a belief reveals lack of comprehension of the relationship that should exist between the people and the troops.  The former may be likened to water the latter to the fish who inhabit it.  How may it be said that these two cannot exist together?  It is only undisciplined troops who make the people their enemies and who, like the fish out of its native element cannot live.

"Fish got to swim, birds got to fly."  Is Ayman Zawahirit just a Show Boat? Regards  —  Cliff