...and yet...

If things were going well for bin Laden's boys, all of that combat and operational experience (plus increased recruiting) should allow them to do even MORE bad things.

...but we're not seeing it. We see a bunch of half-assed combat ops in two countries, we keep capturing high-level bosses in al Qaeda, and we keep catching the handful they send over here to try and pull off ops.

The "increased recruiting" claim isn't actually being borne out in the real world. AQ is not a hydra, and the old saw "cut off one head and two will take its place" just isn't coming about.

What we do see is a concentration of bad guys from a couple of countries, funded by those countries, and that supply of warm bodies is getting less and less reliable all of the time, as they notice that the US is killing 20 or more "freedom fighters" (yes, they're certainly fighting freedom) to 1.

Cirby...

You don't understand bin Laden. He's telling you what he wants to accomplish. He doesn't give a damn about America----hurting it or helping it.

He wants influence and (ideally) control of the region. Attacking us in our own country would be counter-productive now. Of course, there are (and always have been) people who just hate America without fancy geo-political goals. But bin Laden isn't one of them. You need to understand your enemies, because if you don't, you end up in the middle of a bloody civil war in Iraq.

Of course, right-wingers CAN'T understand their enemies because they think understanding is identical to approval.

Cirby:
IMHO, the quagmire in Iraq plays right into the hands of Islamic extremists. For starters, every soldier fighting in Iraq is one who is not going after genuine international terrorists. For another, we're fulfilling the words of the mad mullahs by our own actions. There is probably no better situation for Osama than what he has right now. And it's all without him having to spenda any of his own money or lives.

And we caused a 20:1 casualty rate in Vietnam as well, but because they were fighting for their own land while we were not, they were much more willing to sustain their losses than we were our own. That will likely be the case in Iraq as well -- why should we keep dying for someone else's civil war?

Larkin:
Or our interdiction of al Qaeda's funding and communications after 9-11 has been so effective that they simply can't get away with an operation on that scale any longer.

I was sure someone would post that the "truthers" are on to the US Gov't plans and now no additional attacks will occur, because the Gov't will show it's involvement in the 9/11 attacks.

Um, yeah. You either weren't alive or are willing to forget that we're NOT a financial strapped 1980 Soviet Union whose funds are limited...

But... Peter... According to every liberal I've talked to...

We are a financially strapped 2007 Soviet United State, whose funds are extremely limited.