For Every Action There's An Equal and Opposite Reaction (Newton)

What's been generally missing from the U.S. war on terror strategy is an acknowledgment there are U.S. policies and actions that inflame radical jihadists like al Qaeda and, worse, generate anti-American sentiment among more moderate Muslims. 

The Bush Administration's sole strategy and, by association, a McCain Administration strategy to address radical jihadism seems solidly embedded in the notion the U.S. can either imprison or kill all those radical jihadists.  Voila.  Problem solved. 

But since it's been been six and a half years since 9/11 and the U.S. has yet to capture of kill the biggest target of all, Osama bin Laden, the odds of rounding up or eliminating all the lesser jihadists in any reasonable amount of time are remote at best.  In the meantime, the terrorists continue to wreak horrible havoc, kill innocents and continue to recruit new members to carry on their evil cause.

While not suggesting our policies be based on making Muslims happy, some mindfulness that our actions in the Middle East have reactions and consequences seems like an obvious thing to do.  It doesn't make much sense to blindly formulate policy that seems determined to incite anti-Americanism in those just looking for an excuse to align themselves with radical Muslim groups like al Qaeda.

The news today the U.S. plans to build construct a large prison in Afghanistan seems particularly tone deaf. 

The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come.

Until now, the Bush administration had signaled that it intended to scale back American involvement in detention operations in Afghanistan. It had planned to transfer a large majority of the prisoners to Afghan custody, in an American-financed, high-security prison outside Kabul to be guarded by Afghan soldiers.

There's just one way this will end up being perceived: Americans imprisoning Muslims in a Muslim country.  When so much is riding on our efforts to stem anti-U.S. sentiment in the Middle East, building big prisons hardly seems like the smart thing to do.