I'm generally happy with the way the Bush team has been handling things, but I have detected what I regard as the beginning of an unhealthy obsession with "The Coalition" and I worry that preoccupation with it will unduly shackle our military. Use it for what it can get you, but don't make the center of gravity. It is a weak reed. While there is a large middle class in Pakistan that recognizes that their interests lie with civilization, not fanaticism; the reality is that their intelligence services are riddled with Bin Laden supporters and will leak like a sieve. The Pakistani Madrassas (financed by Saudi money) continue spew hate and churn out Isalmic fanatics. The Saudis are allies in name only. Most of the Al Qaeda funding is from Saudi "Islamic Charities", they have not cooperated with info on the Saudi-born hijackers, and they are starting to more publicly distance themselves from the US - see today's WSJ. The Egyptians don't want to be seen with us in public and their popular press is backing the theory that the WTC attack was an Israeli-CIA plot.
Easing up during Ramadan would be a big mistake. Continuing the fight during Ramadan will no doubt anger the Arab "street", but the Arab street does not seem to need much of an excuse for that these days. One of the goals of the holy month is the "strengthening of willpower and acquiring of patience". Why would we want allow our enemies to do that? Aslo, Islam has all sorts of exceptions to the strictures imposed during Ramadan. "Jihad" is one of them and so you can expect Bin Laden and his band of merry men to make the most of it to regroup if we are foolish enough to let out guard down.