Samantha Power is worth your time.

As Cheney put it, "old doctrines of security do not apply."

As Bush put it, "No nation can be neutral."

But Bush’s premises have proved flawed, and the war-on-terror frame has obscured more than it has clarified.

You could sum it up like this:

"Sometimes doing nothing is the best reaction."

Remember Rumsfeld's snowflake?

"Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?"

Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy.

The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false.

It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies.

And in the end, isn't that the real truth?

The answer ... is: No.

A few question-nuggets, from Power, Petraeus, and Shapiro:

One question in particular hangs over this discussion: Are the American and international publics so disenchanted with Bush’s effort to curb terrorism the wrong way that they will deprive his successor of the resources he or she needs to change course?

"What have you done for the people of Iraq today?"

"You can’t beat something with nothing."

Wrapping up on a down beat:

The American public, with little faith in the credibility of the government’s claims, may deny even cleareyed leaders the resources they need to meet the complex demands of neutralizing modern threats.

Our War on Terror

As the arc of chaos grows from Afghanistan to Somalia by way of the Middle East, the region’s states are growing weaker and their armed groups gaining in power. But in this battle for competing visions between the US and al-Qaida, the Sunni resistance is now opposing al-Qaida in Iraq, as are the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida: the unwanted guests

Pakistani and Taliban officials interviewed by Newsweek say the Qaeda No. 2, Ayman Al-Zawahiri is behind the wave of retaliatory attacks launched after Pakistani troops overran the Red Mosque in Islamabad, which have killed more than 150 people. While Osama bin Laden has been keeping a low profile, Zawahiri has moved aggressively to take operational control of the group. In so doing, Zawahiri has provoked a potentially serious ideological split within Al Qaeda over whether he is growing too powerful and has become obsessed with toppling Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, according to two jihadists interviewed by Newsweek last week.

See also, Al-Qaeda at war over plan to oust Musharraf:

A DEEP split has emerged within al-Qaeda over the wisdom of the terrorist network's drive to overthrow and kill Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf, according to radical Pakistani Islamists allied to the terror network.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the Qaeda No. 2, Has Provoked a Potentially Serious Ideological Split Within Al Qaeda

Ever since the Lal Masjid operation, President Pervez Musharraf has had to face retaliatory action from militant factions all over Pakistan, who are backed and continuously urged by the Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Zawahiri ‘obsessed with killing Musharraf’

A number of tactical and strategic considerations have led us to conclude that al Qaeda does not pose a strategic threat.

Al Qaeda and the Strategic Threat to the U.S. Homeland

Stratfor dissects the story.

It was a week in which everyone focused on the war, but not one that made a whole lot of sense -- at least on the surface.

... The issue, as always, is how good the gut is.

... Precisely what do we mean when we say al Qaeda?

... When the US government speaks about thousands of al Qaeda fighters, the vision is that the camps are filled with these thousands of men with the skill level of the 9/11 attackers. It is a scary vision, which the administration has pushed since 9/11, but it isn't true.

Week out of Focus: Washington, Iraq and Al Qaeda

Why use plain language when a metaphor will do?

It's like you're reading my mind!

Some wars end in peace treaties or surrender ceremonies. The Iraq war appears destined to end in a noxious mixture of metaphors.

War Is Hell, in a Handbasket

On Friday I recommended "The Taliban’s Opium War", an article by Jon Lee Anderson in the latest issue of the New Yorker.

The whole article is excellent, but if you haven't read it yet, consider this nugget:

The eradication team set off early for their first day’s work. There were nineteen Americans and a hundred Afghans in a convoy made up of twenty-four all-terrain vehicles—similar to small dune buggies—eighteen Ranger pickup trucks carrying Afghan policemen, and four of DynCorp’s white Ford F250 pickups. I rode in a truck driven by David Lockyear, an amiable six-foot-seven-inch Tennessean in his thirties, known as Doc Dave. Lockyear, who had a goatee and was covered with tattoos, was a paramedic from Nashville who joined the Marine Corps after September 11th. (“I was just pissed off, like a lot of people, and wanted to do something,” he said.) He fought in the first siege of Falluja, and in 2007 he went to work for DynCorp. He smoked a Marlboro and held a cup of coffee in one hand as he drove.

A great dust cloud formed as the A.T.V.s hyperkinetically whizzed past us and the trucks kicked up plumes of swirling yellow powder. Picking up speed, Lockyear exclaimed, “This is redneck heaven. You get to run around the desert on A.T.V.s and pickups, shoot guns, and get paid for it. Man, it’s the perfect job!”

As a point of contrast:

Nazir Ahmad, a bearded man in a long, opium-stained smock, said that he had twenty people to support and four jiribs of land, from which he expected to harvest twenty-five kilos of opium.

Before I left the field, Ahmad looked at me directly and said, “I know the opium is turned into drugs that destroy young people, and I am sorry, but we are twenty people and we have no help. We must grow it to survive. If we get help, we won’t grow it next year.”

Keep it real, Ahmad!

I have to wonder to what lengths we might go in order to "keep it real" ...

One of the biggest challenges facing the United States in Asia is keeping the region’s leaders focused on the terrorist threat, a recently retired senior defense official told reporters here today.

That’s particularly important among nations that don’t see themselves as terrorist targets, said Richard Lawless, who retired last week after almost five years as deputy assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific affairs.

“If we don’t keep people’s attitudes and eyes focused on the threat, they tend to drift away to other subjects,” he said. “And keeping people focused on that issue has been very tough.”

Lawless acknowledged that some Asian-Pacific countries “are just simply not impacted by terrorism.” Others have gone so long since experiencing a terrorist attack within their borders that they have shifted their attention elsewhere ...

... to things like individual rights, economic development, global free trade, eliminating poverty, fighting AIDS and reducing the risk of global pandemics, and so on. How dare they!

Just what is it going to take to instill fear, and maintain that fear, when some people have nothing to be afraid of?

People say to me, "Whatever it takes." I tell them, It's going to take everything.

The headline here has been revised, but I've used the original one that was on the article as it went out for distribution.

US Must Keep Terror Threat 'Real' to Other Nations, Official Says

This photojournal, by Michael Kamber of the New York Times, is well worth your time. A link to the accompanying article is provided at the end of the segment:

The ground exploded under an ashen sky at dawn. Dust, dirt, blood and military equipment filled the air, clearing after several seconds to reveal a frenzied scene of horror.

Where Sgt. Justin D. Wisniewski, 22, had just been standing there was now a crater five feet wide and three feet deep. His body lay nearby. The wounded were scattered around him.

The soldiers swore.

“It was Ski,” one said, using the sergeant’s nickname.

...

Sergeant Simonovich continued to kneel alone.

“I’m worried about my guy out front, Sergeant Wisniewski,” he said. His Ohio accent was thick enough to sound southern. Blood had splattered his face, which was bruised but intact. “I have a question,” he said, pointing to the left side of his head. “Is my ear still there?”

A Deadly Search for Missing Soldiers