Am I Helping the Terrorist Enemy?

That's the gravamen of several letter writers and comment authors (see here) about my column this week, "Stupid Terrorists": that I am helping terrorists by pointing out their mistakes.

I worried about this possibility, both before writing this analysis and other ones that might give the Islamists clues as to how to better make war on us (such as the article, "How Terrorism Obstructs Radical Islam").

In the case of "Stupid Terrorists," I decided to go ahead on the grounds that if offers no tactical advice an enemy can profit from. "Don't make dumb mistakes" is not operationally useful. No terrorist intends to make mistakes, they just happen in the fear and excitement of the moment.

In the case of "How Terrorism Obstructs Radical Islam," there is indeed a danger of guiding Islamists to a more successful path. But I proceeded because I thought that danger is outweighed by the need to warn Westerners of what lies ahead.

These are judgment calls; I can only promise that I am writing with due caution, and note that there are topics I have not written about publicly precisely because I worried about helping the enemy. (October 6, 2005)

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