CIA Director Steps Back In Time

This morning I've been reading the reaction to CIA Director Michael Hayden's talk on 'The State of al Qaeda Today'. The BBC provides a good summary here, and there's a short video at the Atlantic Council's site.

Aside from the expected appraisals- cause for optimism, support for al-Qaeda falling in Muslim nations, bin Laden on the run- a number of Hayden's assertions really jar. For me his analysis is stuck some time in late 2001, back when we thought we could declare war on terrorism and actually win. Despite his mention of "core al-Qaeda" and "unaffiliated extremists", Hayden really seems to think of al-Qaeda as a single, unified terrorist army- bin Laden is its "iconic" leader, and "this is an organisation that has never been through a change at the top". Is he serious? Does he really believe that if bin Laden had been caught at Tora Bora that the bombers of, say, Bali or London would have given up and, lacking a leader, drifted apart? But the platitudes don't stop there. According to Hayden's view the 'war on terror' is as simple as ever- the "civilised world" is going to defeat its barbaric enemy, the terrorist. And while we don't know what would happen if bin Laden was killed or captured, he's "willing to bet that whatever happens, it would work in our favour." If only it really was that simple.

[Photo: Atlantic Council]