The crux of Daveed's speech focused on the gains and losses the United States has experienced in the past six years. He explained that those gains have been subsequently negated by various losses that the United States has suffered. He concluded by touching upon the reasons why we have suffered these losses, but remained hopeful that the United States could right its course.
Daveed indicated that the United States has acheived four gains since 9/11. The first was the toppling of the Taliban. He referenced the 9/11 Commission Report saying that a major necessity sub-national groups needed to launch a 9/11-style attack was a safe haven from which to plan. The toppling of the Taliban destroyed al-Qaeda's safe haven in Afghanistan and drove them out of the country.
The second victory won by the United States was its declaration of war against terror. Daveed explained that the United States is now fighting an enemy that it wasn't battling prior to 9/11, but one who had attacked the United States. As a result, the US is on the offensive and is preventing our enemies from attacking the homeland.
A third victory Daveed mention was the improvements made in domestic security. By increasing awareness and the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies, al-Qaeda's presence in the United States has been driven underground. He compared our current tactics to the "Al Capone" model of fighting terrorism. Similar to police arresting mobsters for spitting on the ground, the US is arresting would-be terrorists for lesser crimes such as immigration fraud and money laundering.
The fourth and final victory Daveed mentioned was an increased understanding of al-Qaeda's international network. Through cooperative efforts between our agencies and other governements, Daveed argued that the US has been able to augment its understanding of the al-Qaeda network and where it acquires its money and logistics.
While these victories have helped bring numerous terrorists to justice, Daveed stated that they have been negated by greater losses the United States has suffered over the past six years. The first loss is that while the Taliban was toppled in Afghanistan, they have found new safe havens where they didn't exist before. Referencing a high level intelligence official, he stated that the Taliban, and by extension, al-Qaeda, has acquired a safe haven in the Waziristan region of Pakistan that rivals what they enjoyed prior to 9/11. Additionally, Daveed noted that al-Qaeda would probably gain a safe haven in Iraq. He also mentioned the growing insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq, while suggesting that an insurgency is in the making in Somalia.
A second loss he mentioned was the over-stretching of our military. Although we have engaged the terrorists, he noted that we are fighting a two front war in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, our troops and resources have been spread between two theatres, hindering our ability to completely stop terrorist attacks in both regions. Another by-product of this is the increasing cockiness of regimes like Iran, who have become very provocative in their support for the insurgencies.
A third loss is while domestic security measures have aided in bringing terrorists living in the United States to justice, those measures are now under attack from the Democrats. Daveed stated that the Democrats will most likely push to repeal many of them, thus taking away the tools necessary to stop al-Qaeda affiliates in the US.
The final loss that the United States has suffered is that while our understanding of al-Qaeda's international network has increased, that knowledge has been offset by the fact that many analysts and policymakers are basically committing professional malpractice. Daveed uses the example found in Jeff Stein's New York Times op-ed where policymakers and intelligence officials charged with protecting our security didn't even know which groups were Sunni and which were Shia. Daveed stated that this lack of understanding at the top echelons of our government is a major problem and highlights the lack of understanding that our nation's leaders have about our enemies.
Daveed then turned his focus at why these problems have come about. His first reason is that the United States has failed to define its enemy. He echoed the sentiments of one of the other panelists by indicating that terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy. Thus, the war on terrorism is a war on an undefined enemy. He went further to say that without a proper definition of our enemy, we cannot define what victory looks like. As a result, the United States does not have a plan for victory.
Daveed also noted that a lack of understanding about radical Islam exists at the policymaker level. He argued that policymakers and analysts have trouble understanding radical Islam because a lot of them aren't particularly religious. Daveed noted that this poses a very large problem because without an understanding of how religious people think, our leaders won't be able to understand how to counter radical Islam's ideology and by extension, our enemy's advance.
Although the US faces many shortcomings, Daveed offered a glimmer of hope. He stated that while the United States has been in a period of retreat, including political retreat, this is a long war and there is time to right our course.