The article hits the nail on the head.

The only way to win this is a two-step process:

1. A military attack on nerve centers of terrorist activity--what there are of them. This article is correct: the terrorists have no real central locus to destroy. So we attack something symbolic, yet connected to the terrorism in some way. This will help gratify Americans, who want to see just such a symbolic revenge blow.

2. This is the step that gets the real job done, but is not dramatic, and if only enacted by itself would raise question about "why isn't our government DOING something?"

Rebuild our intelligence community, including the hard-assed black ops stuff we used to have. Infiltrate the terrorists and dig them out cell by cell. This will take a very long time. It will not make headlines. It will not be a feather in any politician's cap. Before the job is done, other terrorist acts may occur which will require repeating Step 1.

Nevertheless it's the stuff that won't make headlines that will finally get rid of these terrorists once and for all. Let's hope we can still recruit the kind of people that will be necessary to do the job.

"You do not know these men. You may have looked at them, but you did not see them. They are the wind that blows newspapers down a gutter on a windy night...and sweeps the gutter clean."



--Epilogue from an "Outer Limits" episode, "The Invisibles," about unsung secret agents with the job of infiltrating a world-wide conspiracy.