Al-Qaeda Is Done, Ctd

Petraeus and James Clapper aren't buying Gerges' argument:

David Petraeus says al-Qaida's recent losses of Osama bin Laden and others has opened "an important window of vulnerability" to exploit. In remarks Tuesday to a joint congressional intelligence committee hearing, Petraeus predicted al-Qaida leaders may even flee to Afghanistan or leave South Asia altogether to escape the CIA, which has quadrupled covert drone strikes against al-Qaida under the Obama administration. But Petraeus and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper both say al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoots and others are growing more daring, and dangerous — a sentiment seconded by senators and congressmen in their opening remarks.

Dimitry K. Simes and Paul J. Saunders urge that we not let our fear of terrorism sustain the national security state. Shadi Hamid wants to incorporate democracy promotion into our counterterror strategy:

In the long run, democracy promotion remains the best and most effective way to fight terrorism. That such a notion came to be associated with such an unpopular president made it easy to dismiss. The academic literature, however, appears to lend it support. Drawing on considerable empirical data, Alan Kruger — who is now, interestingly, President Barack Obama's pick to head the Council of Economic Advisers — found that "terrorists are more likely to come from countries that suppress political and civil rights." Reviewing the evidence, Steven Brooke and I made the argument for a causal link between lack of democracy and the incidence of terrorism in this 2010 Policy Review article.