Yes the video and the presentation are the same. In the video he went into detail about the Spanish train bombers; their motives, backgrounds and the fact that it was not a planned action in the way we think of an Al Qaeda attack. It was more of a ‘weekend with the boy’s’ with a horrible outcome that we managed to see as part of a global terrorist cabal.

He also makes the point that Al Qaeda in Iraq is much the same thing. We see it as an armed struggle against terrorists directed from somewhere in the Afghan mountains but the people we are fighting see it as an attempt to overthrow an invading army. If he is even partially correct the best course for the US is simply to go home. This possibility is for all and intent closed to us now because of the hard over macho idea that we simply cannot let ‘them’ win again.

It isn’t part of the presentation but it seems to follow that the reason we have not been attacked since 911 is simply that we don’t have a home grown threat. The local Muslim population is well integrated into the US economy and society and we haven’t (so far) alienated them to the point of retaliation. This is not to say that measures like airplane security are not important and effective but they work best against people who are foreign to our society and therefore easily profiled and tracked.

A truly home grown citizen that hates us can always inflict damage far out of proportion to his effort and an army can never change that and can only, in fact, make it worse.