The GWOT

Just a thought I had as I was studying my Air Force doctrine / PME on the War on Terror.

We invaded Iraq and Afghanistan in prosecuting the war not because this was (necessarily) a direct attack on AQ, but because we believed they were terrorist safe havens. We needed a way to disrupt those safe havens. We chose regime change, and specifically regime change through direct armed intervention.

Counterinsurgency

I don't have time to go into the details, unfortunately, so here's the big picture: It isn't a guerrilla or terrorist attack that brings down a nation. It is that nation's overreaction to it. This is a well established principle of counterinsurgency warfare, and it's the reason Al-Qaeda would like to see John McCain elected president.

Time article