the iraq war in particular was quite counterproductive and bin laden s organization is losing the war of ideas in the muslim world. do you think they are? no doubt, support for al qaeda and suicide bombing is dropping precipitously. but at the end of the day, this has been a small group of people and al qaeda values one recruit more than a thousand followers, or supporters. so it s not like they re going to go out of business just because they re losing popular support, but they are. i think if we had this conversation five, ten years from now, i think their appeal is fading. was there something you started out, an idea in your mind that you started writing the book with that you changed? in writing the book, did you change your mind about anything? you know, i took a while to write the book. one of the unexpected things is how people that once were bin laden s religious mentors and people who fought with him in
closer, in fact, they re much further away. if the intention was regime change in the middle east, that goal is very, very long way away from succeeding. do you think yemen has taken over from afghanistan as far as its global jihad an attacks on the united states? al qaeda continues to train werners in the tribal regions of pakistan. and then, of course, you have al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. a very talented bombmaker continues to make bombs trying to bring down american jets. you credit with the u.s. with actually helping strengthen al qaeda s cause. certainly the invasion of iraq, coercive interrogations, abu grain. the iraq war in particular was quite counterproductive and bin