Tilting at Dominos: America and Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia

American officials have turned their attention toward Southeast Asian policymaking— something largely ignored since the end of the Vietnam War—and have declared Southeast Asia the ‘second front’ in the global campaign against terror. … [But] backing Southeast Asia's often brutal and compromised militaries, which themselves contain elements linked to Islamist radicals, will only boost human rights abuses, breeding popular resentment and setting the stage for more terror.