I wish I had time to explain the extent of the errors I believe we are making in assuming what happens in Iraq will solve, or damn, our attempts to prevent future crises. But I simply don’t.

Nonetheless, I’d like to share a little of what a mind focused on this topic for some 16 years has concluded.

In a nutshell, this one-time Marine believes a movement aimed at overthrowing current Middle Eastern power structures is well under way. Individuals such as Osama bin Laden have chosen to facilitate this effort, while individuals such as Saddam Hussein have attempted, but failed, to convince Western leaders they do not wish this restructuring to be fulfilled.

I make this differentiation between bin Laden and Hussein for an important reason. I believe it’s likely people such as Osama see themselves as benefiting from a thought process here in the West which lumps established leaders in the Middle East with those less established leaders of organizations such as al-Qaida.

In this way, marginal organizations like al-Qaida can instigate conflicts, like the war in Iraq, from which they stand only to benefit, as these wars provide them with both recruits and combat experience.

Jamie Beaulieu, Jay