IN A recent New York Times story assessing the recent spike in terrorist-related incidents including the death of Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev, the commuter train bombings in Mumbai, and recent attacks on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, argued that “The far-flung extremists share an ideology of violent Islamic militancy, hostility to the West and a vicious intolerance of other creeds” but that “the notion of “global terrorism,” and the war against it, may be strategically misleading,” noting the numerous differences between the various terrorist organizations and how they operate.

If only it were that simple.