Quote Originally Posted by Nat Wilcox View Post
with a professed desire (and fatwa allowing them) to obtain and use WMD on US soil? In the case of the Soviet Union, MAD worked to cancel out the WMD factor, and containment was practiced in conventional ways (in small wars, espionage, etc.). But what do we credibly threaten to annihilate if AQ annihilates Cleveland?

Mind you, I am not meaning to defend current practices. But it seems to me that the containment metaphor doesn't clearly apply in the case of the current adversary.

Probably, y'all have discussed what a plausible containment strategy against AQ would look like elsewhere, and if so please just direct me there rather than wasting breath recapitulating it here.
So I think we agree on what the strategic objective is. The question is how best to attain it. But does the promotion of Western style democracy in the Islamic world help prevent an AQ WMD attack on Cleveland? (Of course, we might discuss whether the United States has any vital interests in Cleveland, but that's another issue).

Containment of the Soviet Union wasn't just nuclear deterrence--it was control of travel by Soviet bloc people to the West, economic and political support to fragile nations susceptible to Soviet influence or aggression, the creation of security pacts, etc.

Containment of Islamic extremism might include a similar control on people from Islamic nations who want to travel to the West, more aggressive action to deny the extremists a free rein in cyberspace (difficult, admittedly, but still possible), weaning ourselves off of imported petroleum, as well as more traditional intelligence and and defense activities.