High Expectations
The news that the arrests of several Al Qaeda suspects in Pakistan might have foiled a plot by the terrorists to launch an airborne suicide attack against the U.S. Conuslate in Karachi demonstrates two important points:
1. We are making progress in the war on terror and the idea that the war with Iraq would "distract" us from pursuing Al Qaeda was silly.
2. In a way the very success of the September 11th attacks have put Al Qaeda in a difficult position. 9/11 was such a stunning and devasting attack that it raised the bar on future terrorism. What if the latest Al Qaeda plot to attack the U.S. Consulate in Pakistan would have been successful? A small number of Americans and Pakistanis working at the Consulate would have been killed. But to the average American at home in the USA the story would have little impact. You mean to tell me that Pakistan is a dangerous place for Americans? Imagine that. That attack would have gotten some play in the Arab world and demonstrated that Al Qaeda was still capable of conducting operations but in the big picture of the war it would have been of little consequence. The fact that Al Qaeda has been reduced to planning (and not even being to carry out) such small scale attacks on rather unimportant targets, especially given their past history of gunning for symbolically significant targets, is another sign that the organization is on the ropes.
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