“America has made mistakes over the past decade,” you open your main leader about the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the twin towers and the Pentagon, “but it cannot afford to drop its guard against al-Qaeda” (“Ten Years On,” September 3, 2011). Fair enough. But that is about all you actually have to say in the longest main leader since the event. Let us start with al-Qaeda. It is a secret organization that should be dealt with by the methods it itself uses. That requires intelligence rather than raw force. The organization could have been decapitated and decimated without much of the world even noticing. But let us turn to America’s glaring mistakes. The war in Iraq has little, if anything, to do with al-Qaeda. The pretext was outright silly from the very beginning. In addition, the introduction of democracy by force has not worked and it never will. The war in Afghanistan is a different story, but it is even more disastrous. If anything, America is creating an enemy it will not be able to shake off for decades. Let us finally turn to your newspaper, which has been supportive of the two wars from the start. Ten years on, it has taken you two full pages to keep beating around the bush. Pardon my pun about one of your favorite American presidents.