WE NEED TO SHOW MORE COURAGE AND LESS AGGRESSION.

This strikes me as very typical of what is wrong with our strategy on the whole, and why we keep losing.

I play a lot of Weiqi (or Baduk in Korean, Igo in Japanese). It's a board game that is like chess if you took the kiddie gloves off. It's also a very good model of strategic thinking.

In Weiqi you have two goals: 1. to establish territory for yourself, and 2. to prevent your opponent from establishing territory.

In the war on terror we have reacted to terrorism in a way that is fundamentally flawed. We have sought to secure physical targets, when the terrorists attack us psychologically. We have sought military victories while the ter...

WE NEED TO SHOW MORE COURAGE AND LESS AGGRESSION.

This strikes me as very typical of what is wrong with our strategy on the whole, and why we keep losing.

I play a lot of Weiqi (or Baduk in Korean, Igo in Japanese). It's a board game that is like chess if you took the kiddie gloves off. It's also a very good model of strategic thinking.

In Weiqi you have two goals: 1. to establish territory for yourself, and 2. to prevent your opponent from establishing territory.

In the war on terror we have reacted to terrorism in a way that is fundamentally flawed. We have sought to secure physical targets, when the terrorists attack us psychologically. We have sought military victories while the terrorists are fighting a propaganda battle.

The battles we fight with our armies, the terrorists do not contest - they retreat before we even get there. But the battles the terrorists fight against our morale are only aided by the reactions of our politicians. Not only do we fail to fight the terrorists in the war of Fear, we actually help them!

It should be clear by now that the terrorists are not interested in military victories, thus are impervious to military defeats. Instead we must fight them psychologically. We must prove them wrong through flagrant demonstrations of courage, compassion, and even vulnerability.

That is the only way to defeat an ideology that is predicated on the presumption that we are an imperious and iron clad military power for crude domination.

A belligerent buffoon is exactly what our current military policy makes us look like, while we undermine ourselves by giving in to fear at home. Internationally we aren't fooling anyone, and we appear weaker now than ever before.

WE NEED TO RESPOND TO TERRORISM RATHER THAN SIMPLY REACT TO IT.

I propose that Reaction and Response are two different things. A reaction is an action predetermined by the set of circumstances in which it is conceived. A response is an action taken to alter circumstances to your benefit, bringing things under your control.

In Weiqi, again, there are two principle types of moves: Active and Reactive. An active move is one which demands your opponent to respond. A reactive move is where you are forced to use your move in response to your opponent, rather than furthering your own goals. If you "remain" reactive throughout the game, you will lose, because it means your opponent will control th...

WE NEED TO RESPOND TO TERRORISM RATHER THAN SIMPLY REACT TO IT.

I propose that Reaction and Response are two different things. A reaction is an action predetermined by the set of circumstances in which it is conceived. A response is an action taken to alter circumstances to your benefit, bringing things under your control.

In Weiqi, again, there are two principle types of moves: Active and Reactive. An active move is one which demands your opponent to respond. A reactive move is where you are forced to use your move in response to your opponent, rather than furthering your own goals. If you "remain" reactive throughout the game, you will lose, because it means your opponent will control the board.

The terrorists have already made the first move, but in order to win, we must take initiative, and change the course of the war, by responding with an active move of our own.

Thus far, our strategy has been purely reactive. They bomb the twin towers, so we attack their safe haven. They slip through our fingers, we chase them. They antagonize us, and we strike out blindly against the Middle East (ultimately invading a country on false pretenses that didn't even support Al Qaeda, proving their point that we are a reckless menace.) They send the "shoe bomber," and we go to orange status and start taking off our shoes in the airport. They threaten the Paris-Dakar Rally, so we cancel it.

We are living by the terms the terrorists dictate.

Instead, we should strike at the terrorists where they are weak - by proving them wrong.

Renounce our economic interests in Iraq and instead help the Iraqi people to prosper.

Support democratically elected politicians, even if they disagree with us, and stop supporting dictators who flatter us in all of our weaknesses.

Stop killing innocent civilians in the name of helping them.

Stop torturing political prisoners in the name of freedom.

And stop running scared whenever something goes bump in the night.

I would not say that life is a board game, but instead that the board game can be used as a metaphor to explain the situation. Further more, the game is a creation of the human mind, so is it not in many ways a reflection of our human perspective, in all its glory and imperfections? Couldn't it mirror the situation, even if it is something complex and organic?

Also, don't forget, I began by observing the romance between terrorists and politicians. It is certainly a symbiotic relationship that we also see at play in Iran.

But don't give the government too much credit. They aren't master manipulators. They are just people like you and me. They think they are doing good, they succumb to tempt...

I would not say that life is a board game, but instead that the board game can be used as a metaphor to explain the situation. Further more, the game is a creation of the human mind, so is it not in many ways a reflection of our human perspective, in all its glory and imperfections? Couldn't it mirror the situation, even if it is something complex and organic?

Also, don't forget, I began by observing the romance between terrorists and politicians. It is certainly a symbiotic relationship that we also see at play in Iran.

But don't give the government too much credit. They aren't master manipulators. They are just people like you and me. They think they are doing good, they succumb to temptations, and they act without thinking. I have not yet seen a politician who I believe can genuinely manipulate with steely and detached malice.

It may be comforting to believe in evil and manipulation, because this can imply a certain kind of perfection, and an explanation for what is wrong that excuses us. It distances us from the people who created the disaster. It is a kind of eternal absolution.

But instead, I find it much more challenging to believe in human fallibility and passion. It's important because those are two traits that we all share with the likes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whether we like to admit it or not.