Got it. I like that! Well, it's my secret hope that this is, in fact, what the secret plan is, sort of.
With a nod to
USS Clueless, the real source of most of my pre-packaged soundbite thoughts.
The USS Clueless plan: wholesale, unapologetic cultural imperialism. Taking Iraq is first, free up their oil, end a serious source of terrorism, and put the rest of the area into imbalance, and roll the dice. Take the intelligence information you get from Iraq and use it to document Syria's connections and weaponry. Nod with appreciation when the presense of a little help in the area emboldens the anti-Islamist factions in Iran. Maybe get a new attitude out of the Saud family - or document their connections to terrorism, or find some other pretext and liberate the next country.
The easy way to do it, the wrong way, would have been to encourage a racist, xenophobic, us versus them scenario in the US. (I was never so proud as when Bush visited the mosques post-9/11.) Instead, in space of days after 9/11, they came up with a Big Lie slogan: "Islam means Peace". It would both snuff any nationalist/racist instinct, and sharply indicate that the nature of the conflict was a hijacking of a belief system. In one fell swoop, they defined the nature of the debate. A neat trick, and done without mirrors too.
After only a few days, they crafted Bush's speech to tell the world that this meant war, and not just a war against al Queda or bin Laden, but a broader war that would take years and years. Maybe they was thinking that Afghanistan would take years, but they were so unspecific about who the enemy was.
So I think they "get it", that what is really intended here is a smackdown of all of radical Islam. Without which there remain several million Richard Reids to ignite several million pairs of Semtex shoes.