Where the west is really hamstrung is that it can't control the media the way it's enemies can any more. It also can't fight in the same ruthless manner that it's enemies can and do!
Look back at the history of warfare and you'll see that as soon as the west allowed unfettered access by the media to the frontlines it essentially lost it's ability to fight wars effectively.
During the Civil War President Linciln suspended Habeus Corpus, muzzled the press and went on to, successfully, prosecute one of the bloodiest wars ever.
During WW1 do you think the populations of Britian, America or Australia/New Zealand would have supported the war effort if they had been privvy to what was really going on?
WW2 and Korea were fought in much the same vein, that is all the population was shown was controlled.
Then we come to Vietnam and all of a sudden we can be on the front line too. That, combined with a war run by the Politicians(unfortunately Kennedy and his collegues thought that their success at averting nuclear war during the Cuban crisis armed them with a new method of fighting wars in general, i.e take it out of the hands of the Generals!)took any hope of victory away.
The Gulf War was a victory however it was 'classic warfare' along the lines of WW2 and fought against Iraqi conscipts out in the open.
Anyone who remembers Wesley Clarke appologising for accidentally bombing the Chinese Embassy look no further for the evidence that we can no longer prosecute wars without CNN looking over the shoulders. The Chinese population was told that America had attacked the Serbs 'out of the blue', their only crime being friends of the 'Soviets'. The Chinese Govt controlled media NEVER aired the film showing Wesley Clarke and NEVER told the Chinese population that it was an accident born of bad intelligence.
The Serbian population was told by Milosevics controlled media that the 'refugees' were running from NATO bombing towards their Serbian friends, far from the truth as we know it.
Now you have Govt controlled media telling the populations of many Muslim countries that it IS a war against Islam, and what percentage of the worlds Muslims saw the film taken on Sept 11? Precious f**king few in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran etc I'll bet.
The US is running a very high risk of uniting the Muslim world, or at least the fundamentalist part, in Jihad against the West. It could have been handled better, but American media, and the national psyche can't let it.
Chuck.