Out of the gun barrels of babes

Al Qaida's been busy recently, burying dead commanders, declaring cease-fires and corrupting Iraq's youth. Sadly, our Pakistani allies aren't doing so well in the war against al Qaida. It seems that the recently deceased Abu Laith al-Libi had the run of Waziristan before the missile strike that killed him last week. The Pakistanis are being blamed for frustrating the efforts of the U.S. and its allies to stop the group and the Taliban. The Pakistani army has been taking its share of casualties in regional fighting, including the decapitation of it's regional command staff in a helicopter accident. But it's al Qaida's focus on children that's most disturbing. By turning kids into terrorists, al Qaida is opening a new, long-term offensive in what many are calling The Long War. Unless we start funding alternatives to war for disaffected Middle Eastern youths and start a more aggressive public deplomacy offensive, this could very well become a war without end.