1. Islamic terrorism doesn’t represent a “clash of civilizations,” but a civil war within al-Islam. We need a strategy to help the good guys win that war. Right now, we don’t have one.
2. Redrawing the org chart won’t fix the problems within the CIA and the FBI that led to their lamentable performance before and after 9-11.
3. This stuff is hard. We need to be able to argue about it seriously. Critics of current performance aren’t friends of terrorism, and advocates of the Patriot Act aren’t fascists.
[Longer Richard Clarke here.]
Commentary from Amy Zegart to follow soon, I hope.