In warfare, we speak of centers of gravity, which when disabled or destroyed can topple the enemy. In conventional wars, centers of gravity consist of the enemy’s military forces and strategic infrastructure such as transportation and communication networks. For Osama bin Laden and his fellow jihadists, however, the American center of gravity is none of that. It is our money. In October 2005, Abu Mus’ab al-Najadi, a Saudi and active member of al Qaeda, announced just that to anybody who cared to read. He stated that, in the long war against America, the Islamists and their al Qaeda spearheads are in an era entirely different from earlier crusades. During the Muslim expansion era, wars were measured by military strength, so victory went to the superior armies. “But,” writes al-Najadi, “our war with America is fundamentally different, for the first priority is defeating her economically.” Bin Laden himself has publicly declared that he intends to “bleed America to the point of bankruptcy,” and he is quick to notify the world of every success he has had. So, for Al-Najadi and bin Laden, the American center of gravity is not the U.S. military, although the more they can create the perception that the military, and its leaders, are feckless, the more they can enlist other jihadists to their cause. The true center of gravity, however, consists of the U.S. economic system and the American people. Once the economic system breaks down, bin Laden and associates expect the people of America to no longer have the willpower or the staying power to endure against the protracted war against terror. Of course al Qaeda carried out this strategy operationally in the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. By some estimates, the cost to them for the attacks was a half-million dollars, while the economic damage to us was $80 billion. This represents a return on their investment of 16,000 times the original investment. And that return continues to mount each time TSA agent inspects our luggage. The attack of Sept. 11, 2001, was only one episode. The jihadists have been carrying out their strategy before and after September 11, because their goal is to force America to react to acts of terror worldwide until the United States -- and its people -- are simply exhausted. With this in mind, Paul Sperry’s book, Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives have Penetrated Washington, could make readers pretty paranoid about what’s happening today in America’s economic meltdown. Sperry asserts that, by 2005, jihadists had “penetrated the U.S. military, the FBI, the Homeland Security Department, and even the White House.” He doesn’t claim they have infiltrated the heart of America’s financial system, but the incursions they have made certainly raise suspicion. For them, the “long war” has lasted almost 1,400 years, so expending a score of years from a jihadist’s life span to infiltrate the Wall Street apparatus represents an excellent return on investment. Infiltration over time is not difficult because, as Sperry says, they are “ten-times” harder to penetrate than the Italian Mafia. So, we’ve seen no evidence that the American financial system has been infiltrated by jihadists. Besides, bin Laden doesn’t need jihadists to create havoc within the economy. Indeed, he must be chuckling with joy, and telling his terrorist team, “We don’t have to infiltrate America’s economy to destroy it; they’re destroying it all by themselves.”