Two considerations:

Attrition – whose directing this strategy against whom? It is cutting both ways.

The concept that we have “drawn out” the enemy and are facing them is pretty overstated. How much of the enemy are we encountering and how many are new fodder to throw at our troops is at best poorly understood and underestimated. We had no idea what kind of numbers the enemy had at its disposal prior to 9/11 and we have less actual knowledge now. All we know is that they keep sending them at our troops and civilians, they keep producing and implementing IEDs, and they keep attacking soft targets overseas. (What happens when we finally seal the Iraq borders and the Fundis need to go to someone else’s house to play?)

This leaves us with one bright consideration, US soil has not been tainted by Fundi scum since 9/11. I hope this has to do with public awareness and law enforcement intensity in this country more than the black hole of Iraq (black hole meaning all the fundis are getting drawn toward the center of the conflict). It would not take long for the Fundis to exploit the US – my understanding from sources close to some of our soft targets is that we are still at significant risk – mainly because people in authority choose to ignore the questions instead of address them.