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Dear al Qaeda: Why haven't you attacked the United States again?

By Ann Althouse

Ayman al-Zawahri is taking questions on line.

Some of those posting questions sound worried: Does al-Qaida have a long-term strategy?...

Many appear frustrated that al-Qaida is not doing more.

"When we will see the men of al-Qaida waging holy war in Palestine? Because frankly our situation has become very bad," writes one, with the username "Seeking the Path."...

"I think they (al-Qaida's leaders) were aware (that) ... everyone was no longer buying into the propaganda about how great they are," said Jeremy Binnie of Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center. "This was put forward as a propaganda exercise and to make it look like they are responding to these concerns."

Politics is not easy for the terrorists. It's not enough just to blow things up. You have to also explain why you aren't blowing more things up.

"Do you have a body that studies events and reviews them to correct mistakes and assess them?"

Let's have some accountability.

ADDED: An emailed comment:

If only the process was more transparent. Then people would feel that they had more of a say in which terrorists were in charge.

The terror netroots are all about wanting to see more things get blown up, but they don't actually do anything but make noise. Chickenvultures, that's all they are. A serious terrorist leader would be able to get them in line, and be generally more supportive of jihad, rather than undermining it.

And really, al Qaeda's entire campaign is built on what they did on 9-11. Nevermind that prior to that, they were considered very polarizing figures. The truth is, they were in the right place, at the right time, and they've been playing that for all it's worth. And what have they done since? Been using that rep to garner big
contributions.

Full post as published by Althouse on January 21, 2008 (boomark / email).