ALCON,
Thanks for the outstanding feedback! Currently I am working on a thesis that the "chaos" stategy of Jemaah Islamiyah in SE Asia is to achieve victory by denying us decisive victory. How? In my opinion, one of the more important lessons of Korea and Vietnam for potential U.S. adversaries is that the average American is not interested in fighting a war without a clear moral issue- a pure cause that will justify the bloodshed & destruction of major sustained combat operations that result in decisive victory, defeated and complient enemy, and a American interests clearly achieved.
JI is employing a strategy that leverages inherent instabilities of the SEA reagion to maintain a relatively high level of violence and social discord. When opportunities (such as the tsunami, Mollukus, the '98 financial crisis) to create an environment that is difficult for a U.S.-led coalition or UN to justify a prolonged intervention to restore stability. Just look at the restricitions and risk assessments that occured in just sending the hospital ship and medical aid. As the credability and legitmacy of governments erode, capital flight destroys the economy and countries collapse bring even more social upheaval and violent competition.
In a grand strategic sense, SEA is just as important if not more so to U.S. long-term interests as the Mid-East oil. More than 60% of maritime shipping passes trought the Straites of Mulacca; Korea & Japan get 80% of their oil through here; China's oil consuption needs are expected to increas 40% by 2015 and they need to secure this route as well; one-third of the world computers are maunufactered here and over half the worlds computer chips, the list goes on ad naseum.
A hostile entity (Islamic Caliphate) based in Indonesia could have serious consequesnces for U.S. long-term security interests and might even spark future Chinese intervention.