Six years after the 9/11 attacks, there is a good case to be made that the national security strategy of the United States is in shambles. We are mired in a war in Iraq that hinged on false premises supplied by the American intelligence services and irresponsible and exaggerated claims by the White House and its allies. America’s good name continues to be sullied by pervasive allegations and evidence of torture—all fertile recruiting propaganda for al Qaeda and its allies. (As recently as July, 20 2007, the White House reauthorized the CIA’s use of torturous interrogation methods.) And with American unpopularity at disturbingly high levels about the world, there is scant evidence that we are winning the “war of ideas” the 9/11 Commission properly deemed to be central to countering terrorism.