My thoughts exactly
James Kellerman
One of my favourite bloggers Jon Taplin is currently at a meeting hosted by the British Government with a group of the best minds in the UK and US on counterterrorism. He has some interesting observations on the sentiment there.
What is astonishing to me is the almost unanimity (with the possible exception of a US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence) that U.S. policy since 9/11 has done more to enhance the “Al Qaeda Brand” than any other factor. Another informal consensus is that Mrs. Clinton’s claims to Foreign Policy and National Security experience are pure nonsense–someone asked me “could Nancy Reagan have run for President?” Finally, although there is a good bit of skepticism that a black man named Barack Obama could actually be elected in America (visions of the vicious parts Civil Rights movement still are in people’s minds), there is the general belief, that such an election would change “the American Brand” in a way that would be universally beneficial in combatting extremist Jihaddi rhetoric.