Khalid Sheik Mohammed in his own words update book review

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We will win because Americans don’t realize .?.?. we do not need to defeat you militarily; we only need to fight long enough for you to defeat yourself by quitting.”

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That is the actual goal of all wars. The purpose is to outlast the enemy from a morale standpoint, both with the soldiers and citizens at home.

We have failed in our implementation of war for decades.

If the purpose was retaliatory, as was the "stated" case in the ME, we should have bombed them and left.

Nation building is a failed component of our current strategy, and that man understood that.

We have squandered the currency of national support on moronic ME incursions, and that is apparent in the current sentiment of our society.

Agree

They assumed we would lob some Tomahawk's into an aspirin factory or empty tents. Consider it a crime and call it a day. They didn't expect the U.S. to topple the Taliban and hunt their asses down in the mountains.

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We have failed in our implementation of war for decades.

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Negative feedback of collateral damage is the excuse here.

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If the purpose was retaliatory, as was the "stated" case in the ME, we should have bombed them and left.

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Negative feedback of collateral damage is the excuse here also.

But perhaps the most riveting part of the book is what KSM told Mitchell about what inspired al-Qaeda to attack the United States — and the U.S. response he expected. Today, some on both the left and the right argue that al-Qaeda wanted to draw us into a quagmire in Afghanistan — and now the Islamic State wants to do the same in Iraq and Syria. KSM said this is dead wrong. Far from trying to draw us in, KSM said that al-Qaeda expected the United States to respond to 9/11 as we had the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut — when, KSM told Mitchell, the United States “turned tail and ran.” He also said he thought we would treat 9/11 as a law enforcement matter, just as we had the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the USS Cole in Yemen — arresting some operatives and firing a few missiles into empty tents, but otherwise leaving him free to plan the next attack.

“Then he looked at me and said, ‘How was I supposed to know that cowboy George Bush would announce he wanted us ‘dead or alive’ and then invade Afghanistan to hunt us down?’” Mitchell writes. “KSM explained that if the United States had treated 9/11 like a law enforcement matter, he would have had time to launch a second wave of attacks.” He was not able to do so because al-Qaeda was stunned “by the ferocity and swiftness of George W. Bush’s response.”

KSM “said jihadi-minded brothers would immigrate into the United States” and “wrap themselves in America’s rights and laws” until they were strong enough to rise up and attack us. “He said the brothers would relentlessly continue their attacks and the American people would eventually become so tired, so frightened, and so weary of war that they would just want it to end.”

“Eventually,” KSM said, “America will expose her neck for us to slaughter.”

But quitting will not bring us peace, KSM told Mitchell. He explained that “it does not matter that we do not want to fight them,” Mitchell writes, adding that KSM explained “America may not be in a religious war with him, but he and other True Muslims are in a religious war with America” and “he and his brothers will not stop until the entire world lives under Sharia law.”

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wrap themselves in America’s rights and laws” until they were strong enough to rise up and attack us

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Huma?

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Surely KSM can see the difference between hitting the wtc on US soil vice bombing US embassies and Marine barracks abroad.

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Maybe you're attributing too much sophistication to his historical understanding.

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Surely KSM can see the difference between hitting the wtc on US soil vice bombing US embassies and Marine barracks abroad.

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Apparently the goat herder didn't, I think they underestimated Bush/s resolve more than anything.

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so wait... is he saying that the WTC attacks worked better than he thought? I fail to see the picture that KSM is painting here.

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I think just the opposite, he was caught off guard by the swift actions, having said that I think he is suggesting the long game versus a short term loss.

Odd ball way of claiming lose the battle win the war?