What ‘Disrupting’ and ‘Defeating’ al-Qaeda Means to Obama

In my last post, I asked what it means to “disrupt” and “defeat” al-Qaeda, which President Obama said in his speech was the goal in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Denis McDonough, the National Security Council’s director for strategic communication, fielded those questions for me.

Referring to recent intelligence reports about al-Qaeda planning attacks on the United States from its Pakistani tribal-area safe havens, McDonough defined “disrupting” as “those plans not [being] further carried out.” So disruption is about planning, and the relevant measurement is a lack of further attacks on us. “Defeating” is about giving an alternative to “the violent, hopeless future” that al-Qaeda offers, though “different opportunities available to Pakistanis and Afghans and others.” Notice that “defeat” here is has an ideological meaning, and its primary measurement comes from the perceptions of Afghans and Pakistanis themselves.

So I followed up: is the goal then no safe havens? Or measured in al-Qaeda operatives killed and captured?

“We need to shut that safe haven down,” McDonough replied. “How we succeed against al-Qaeda members? The president has made very clear for years now that there’s a hardcore [membership of al-Qaeda] that there’s no reasoning with and no political process for. … At the end of the day, they have to be met by force alone.”

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