Stumbles at the top put the war on terror at risk - OpinionPeterHartcher - www.smh.com.au:

"Tony Cordesman, of the non-partisan Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, [says] that 'from al-Qaeda's perspective, they can make a claim that they are in fact winning, not losing the war on terrorism'. How so?

'The victory we have won in Afghanistan is tenuous at best - it is more Kabulstan than Afghanistan. The fighting goes on. The US is tied down there. The problems of Central Asia continue ... From al-Qaeda's viewpoint Iraq is, by any standard, not an American victory yet ...

'Al-Qaeda has so far done more to dominate the Arab media than the US. The US effort to win the information battle and hearts and minds has been sufficiently inept ... "

The enemy is no longer just al-Qaeda but a hydra-headed global movement...

Support for the US-led war on terrorism also has fallen in most Muslim publics. Equally significant, solid majorities in the Palestinian Authority, Indonesia and Jordan - and nearly half of those in Morocco and Pakistan - say they have at least some confidence in bin Laden to 'do the right thing'."