JMM,

Good question on ideology. Majority position is that "extremist islamic ideology is the strategic center of Gravity of AQ." That really bothered me when I first read it, so as I studied what the experts (Mao, Deng, Galula, etc) had to say about insurgency and counterinsurgency, I came to the (minority) position that:

1. Every Insurgency requires an effective ideology in order to succeed.

2. An ideology is effective if it both rallies the populace to the cause, and also takes a position that the government is either unwilling or unable to co-opt or conceed.

3. If any given ideology is ever "defeated" or fails to be effective for whatever reason, so long as the conditions giving rise to insurgency still exist, the insurgent simply picks up a new one and continues to fight. Ideology is like an infantryman and his rifle. He has to have one, but if his breaks, is captured, or lost, he can pick up another and continue the fight.

4. Deng's quote is classic on how he viewed ideology: "It does not matter if a cat is black or white so long as it catches mice."

5. Deng's predecessor, Mao, changed ideologies 4 times in the course of leading his movement, always shifting to stay with what was "effective."

So, I don't get too bothered about AQ's choice of ideology. We should try to "Neutralize" it, not defeat it. Bin Laden makes some good points, by agreeing with those points that are valid we take the wind out of his sails. By being pig-headed and trying to "defeat extremist Islamic ideology" we put ourselves at odds with good Muslims everywhere and actually stregthen AQ in the process.

Fight smarter, not harder.