America has a tendency to focus on the personalities of famous jihadists, rather than the ideology that propels them to violence.
The problem is that when these terrorists are not captured or killed, Americans grow restless, wondering why we have not yet “won.”
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Kyle Dabruzzi have a great piece in the The Middle East Quarterly on five new jihadi leaders. The piece is well worth the read. But be careful not to view these leaders as the bogeymen of tomorrow. Their vision of the world is what is most important to defeat. When their ideology is defeated, these jihadi leaders will be defeated, too
