muslims, who can most effectively battle al qaeda in the realm of ideas. the u.s. can help by building up the legitimacy and capacity of these governments in various ways by encouraging reform, providing aid, technical know-how. of course this would be the softest of the three strategies and would probably draw the most fire from obama s critics before they actually pursue it more fully. go to cnn.com/fareed for a link to my time column this week, and let s get started. you ve heard my take. let s dig deeper now. i have two great scholars on al qaeda and terrorism. peter bergen is of course cnn s national security analyst, the author of many books on al qaeda. he produced the first tv interview of osama bin laden back in 1997. gregory johnsen is the author of the last refuge, yemen, al qaeda and america s war in arabia.