So the problem is not, as US Senator Bob Graham claimed in May, that Washington has been deflected from fighting terrorism by its Iraq adventure. The problem is that the logic of the US strategy is based on an ahistorical and selective reading of the Middle East. Worse still, the Americans have been found wanting in the execution of their own game plan.
The US strategy involves remaking the Middle East and as such it does represent a coherent response to the threat posed by Al Qaeda, because the latter also envisages remaking the region.
