US Whack-a-Mole View of Jihadism

March 19th, 2015 | http://www.lobelog.com/us-whack-a-mole-view-of-jihadism/#more-28518

by Graham E. Fuller
Violent Islamic jihadi radicalism continues to spread across the Muslim world with ever newer names and forms. But Washington seems fixated in each case upon the particular immediate character of each movement, its leadership, followers, and modus operandi. We analytically sift the groups for differences among them that might offer solutions to neutralizing them. But we are missing the forest for the trees: commonalities among them are greater than distinctions. Al-Qa’ida was not a one-off thing that could be individually terminated but a symptom of a far deeper problem.http://www.lobelog.com/us-whack-a-mole-view-of-jihadism/#more-28518