Did the bin Laden founded AlQaeda lose today?

[JohnnyRingo]

I don't know if I dare mention what I was thinking all week, that this anniversary was AlQaeda's last chance for relevancy in the Middle East.

Though I know it's still technically 9/11,the clock is sweeping into the final hours of the tenth year since the worst attack on American soil, and all seems well in the Apple. It's impossible to imagine that they didn't want to create a stir on this date to prove that America is no longer safe, but it appears The United States is a tough nut to crack. While at least half of us aren't nuts, even our resolve against outside aggression is strong and capable as well. I give hats off to the security forces big and small that helped make today a safe commemoration for New Yorkers.

I know some may wonder if they may strike when we least expect it, but a politically important opportunity has come and gone. the AlQaeda #1, guy (nee#2, nee#3) can tell his would-be recruits "Death to America on the silver anniversary!", but that'll just meet with eye rolling.

Blow me, AlQaeda.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Call me diabolical,

but if I were a terrorist (which I'm not, in case there's any doubt), I would strike maybe a week from now when people are feeling more relaxed.

[SixthSense]

5. Why do they need to? Their job is done

The point was to initiate the collapse of our empire, and lo and behold our empire is collapsing, and we have done it to ourselves.

There doesn't need to be a single additional terror incident for the operation to be a grand strategic (not merely tactical) success in the eyes of those who planned it.

[Blue_In_AK]

6. And you are, of course, correct.

Osama "may" be dead, but he definitely got the last laugh.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. al qaeda is a viral idea of jihad against the west

it is not a military force that can be defeated, a gang that can be wiped out. As long as the conditions persist that provide the justification for this nonsense, the style of attacks created by bin laden will continue to be pursued by others.

That is the bad news. The good news is that there is no sophisticated 'al qaeda central' running the show, training super secret sleeper cells to lie in wait, striking when our guard is down. There may be another London or Madrid or even another 9-11, but it will be because some isolated self organized group of disaffected 20 and 30 somethings managed to pull it off all on their own.

[Angry Dragon]

3. It seems to me bin Laden and Al-Qaeda have won

Get on a plane lately without being strip searched??
How many trillions of dollars has this country spent on war in the last ten years??
How many soldiers have died needlessly in hunting down terrorists??
Terrorists that used to work for the CIA, just for the record
How many more years, how many more deaths will it take to rid the world of terrorists??

Look around and see the government telling everyone to be afraid, that the government needs more money
to protect this country. The world will always have terrorists. The secret is not to go out and create them so they come back and try to kill you.

[ixion]

4. al Qaeda was founded by the CIA

when the USSR was occupying Afghanistan. Trained and armed by them, too.