From a friend who is a retired Army Colonel:

I looked into this. It is unclear to me that Poole and Ricks even read the work Doug Lovelace’s professor did. I did, and I know Doug did, as well. So I called Doug. Doug is Director of the Army Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College. I’ve known him 20 years. Doug wrote the preface on her work posted on 28 Dec. Her hypothesis is Hamas and Israeli strategic objectives are incompatible, and peace is not possible as long as there are no shared objectives. She also correctly predicts (in summer 2008) that Israel will re-take the Gaza through its policy of “aggressive deterrence.” Have known Tom Ricks almost that long. The reason he no longer works for the Wash Post is he’s just not a very good reporter. Doug also said Poole’s commentary about war college students not being allowed to study Islamic extremism is dead wrong. Extremism is a big curriculum focus area. About half the student dissertations are written on extremism and potential US strategic responses to it. We’ve got to be careful with guys like Poole and Ricks. They both have websites and only get hits (ergo ad income) if they broadcast sensational stuff. Sensational meaning wrong, in this case.