America is at war with a transnational terrorist movement fueled by a radical ideology of hatred, oppression, and murder.

Through the freedom agenda, we have promoted the best long-term answer to al–Qaida's agenda: the freedom and dignity that comes when human liberty is protected by effective democratic institutions.

It occurs to me that this point is rarely emphasized enough:

There is a broad and growing global consensus that the deliberate targeting of innocents is never justified by any calling or cause.

Even though few of you re-recommended it, you may recall this post from April:

According to one who was present, Churchill suddenly blurted out: "Are we animals? Are we taking this too far?"

Back to the document:

Challenges

* Terrorist networks today are more dispersed and less centralized. They are more reliant on smaller cells inspired by a common ideology and less directed by a central command structure.

In other words, al Qaeda is a scene. Note that this is the #1 challenge cited in the document.

You'll also note that the "Successes" section does not boast about the fact that there have been no successful attacks within the US since 9/11.

Does the strategy go astray here?

The long-term solution for winning the War on Terror is the advancement of freedom and human dignity through effective democracy. In effective democracies, freedom is indivisible. They are the long-term antidote to the ideology of terrorism today. This is the battle of ideas.

National Strategy For Combating Terrorism