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===Success to come from a "political outcome"===
Lute [http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/24/africa/web.0824iraqA.php told] reporters during a visit to London in August 2005 that "Everything in a counterinsurgency has to do with the political outcome, not the military outcome."
==Using [[information warfare]] to fight "Bin Ladenism" and AQAM==
In a February 14, 2006, [http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007962 interview] with the ''Wall Street Journal'', Lute cited the [[Quadrennial Defense Review]], "which reveals long-term military planning, which shows a top brass [Lute] worried about the ideology of hate preached by imams across the Islamic world. This ideology, though twisted, is somewhat coherent and calls for using [[terrorism]] to create a 'caliphate,' a unified Islamic state, stretching from Afghanistan and [[Iran]] all the way to Spain and including most of North Africa. For a lack of a better term, some American military planners call this ideology 'bin Ladenism'," Lute said.
Lute "noted that bin Ladenism has deep roots in many Islamic countries and that bin Laden isn't the only [[terrorist]] leader trying to appeal to populations oppressed by dictators. There are some 18 terrorist organizations that are part of what the military calls al Qaeda and Affiliated Movement. The military, he said, even has an acronym for it: AQAM.
"To counter bin Ladenism, the military is planning a two-stage war. The first is being fought in open battles in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere and looks a lot like the kind of war most Americans assumed we'd wage on al Qaeda and terror-sponsoring states after the [[September 11, 2001|Sept. 11 attacks]]. The second stage is what senior military planners--including [Secretary of Defense] Rumsfeld--call 'the Long War.' It involves countering one set of ideas with another," Lute said. [http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110007962]
This latter stage is information warfare. Lute points to Rumsfeld, who reminded journalists in the audience at the [[National Press Club]] "that al Qaeda and its affiliates have 'media relation committees.' 'Think of that--they get up in the morning, have committee meetings and think about how they're going to manipulate the world's press to their advantage,' [Rumsfeld] said. It's not just that al Qaeda members watch CNN or the Fox News Channel for tactical information, but they have 'proven to be highly successful at manipulating the world's media here in this country.'"
==Strategy for fighting the enemy (November 2006)==
