The reason there have been no Al Qaeda attacks in the US since 9/11 is that Al Qaeda no longer needs to stage attacks here in order to achieve their political objective of bankrupting the United States. We have given Bin Laden exactly what he wanted by occupying Iraq. The recent Al Qaeda attacks in Madrid, London, and Bali were designed to force the Spanish, British, and Australians to withdraw from Iraq, thereby increasing the isolation of the US and forcing us to bankrupt ourselves that much faster. It is a common belief that Al Qaeda will attack US interests to force us to leave Iraq, but in fact the opposite is probably true. The neocon maxim of “fighting them there instead of fighting them here” is actually true with respect to Al Qaeda, although I doubt that most people who use this phrase actually understand why that is the case…

When you find yourself losing in a contest, you should take a moment to ask yourself if your opponent is playing the same game that you are.