Get your al Qaeda franchise now!

General John Abizaid, commander of CENTCOM, said in testimony before Congress recently that al Qaeda is not a monolith like IBM, with a central headquarters, but more like McDonald's, with franchises operating largely independently.

The central question that America faces is, how do we convince people not to start new al Qaeda franchises?

As long as the terrorists are having such an easy time finding new recruits, we will never win the so-called "War on Terror." We can't negotiate with people who have already committed themselves to suicide bombing and intentional killing of civilians, but we'd better find some way to make it harder for them to get fresh reinforcements, not to mention opening whole new franchises.