Why would anyone assume that there are not thousands of terrorists already in the US?

[Pekka]

But you know what they say.. assumption is the mother of all f*** ups. And it's true.

[Dr Strangelove]

For one thing, there don't appear to have been a large number of al-Queda terrorists in the US ever. 9/11 was staged by a mere 20 people. Could there be more stuck away in the US waiting for an opportune time? Maybe, but given the amount of hurt put on al-Queda and Iraq in the past year and a half I would have thought that they would have been tempted to do something else by now.

I think that the home grown wackos are pretty much taken care of by now. The Oklahoma City/McVeigh affair has pretty much forced them to cool off.

[DarthVeda]

Stupid and Desperate

Some folks are interpreting the recent terror attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca as a sign that al Qaeda is making a comeback.

They’re wrong.

These attacks show that the terrorists are on the ropes. They’re getting stupid and desperate.

Al Qaeda was once a terrorist organization with tremendous financial and operational resources, and a global reach. Now they have been reduced to a bunch of dumb thugs terrorizing their own neighborhood--and the mistakes they are making today will have costly and lasting repercussions.

For the most part, Bin Laden refrained from carrying out major terror attacks within the Saudi Kingdom (the notable exception being the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing). In return, certain elements in Saudi Arabia ensured that the lines of funding to al Qaeda would not be disrupted. That "unwritten bargain" is no longer in effect. If the terrorists believe these attacks will help to get the money flowing again, they’re sadly mistaken.

“Not In My Back Yard” isn’t just an American phenomenon.

Before the war in Iraq, al Qaeda declared solidarity with Saddam and threatened major terror attacks around the world, if the Coalition invaded Iraq. The domestic terror alert in the United States went to Orange. Nothing happened.

So, are we to assume that last week's attacks were part of this long anticipated “Wave of Terror?”

A bunch of armed thugs gunned down a few rent-a-cops at the guard shacks of three gated compunds, then set off car bombs inside. The thugs were Arabs, operating on their home turf in Riyadh. Nine nincompoops blew themselves up, in order to kill eight American expatriates, seven Saudis, and a handful of other foreign workers.

I’m not impressed.

One of the principles of asymmetric warfare is to exploit the enemy’s weak points in order to attack high-value targets while expending a minimum of your own resources. So these criminals managed to find a weakness—but despite the very real tragedy of these deaths, it wasn’t a high value target, and they wasted quite a bit of their own resources to carry out the attack. Stupid.

In Casablanca, they blew up a Spanish restaurant, a Jewish community center, and the Belgian Consulate. What’s the message, here? They hate Spaniards, Jews, and Belgians? Why not go after the American Embassy? Too difficult, maybe?

I’m thinking the Belgian Consulate wasn’t their first choice of targets—especially considering the vocal opposition the Belgian government expressed before and during the war. In fact, it was probably way down the list. Looks like the bad guys are getting desperate.

Believe me, there are plenty of higher profile targets in the region. They want to send a message that they hate America? Here I am, in their neighborhood, proudly wearing a US Military uniform—they can come get me. One catch though—I’m well trained, and prepared to defend myself.

Not interested? What a bunch of cowards.

Time to put away the guns and explosives and get real jobs.

http://www.lt-smash.us/

[Inverse Icarus]

this is why we need to garrison our borders with snipers / mine fields, etc. if a mexican makes it across the border with all that, conscript him into the military, and after 4 years of service he can be a citizen.

[GePap]

From his post, it is obvious lt-smash is an idiot who doesn't know what the hell he is talking about.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Lincoln
Thanks for your valuable insight into terrorism ragher. I didn't know that Bush flew the planes into the buidings. But he was a pilot and Republican so I guess it could have been him...

So you are saying that bin Laden isn't a terrorist.

[DarthVeda]

Originally posted by GePap
From his post, it is obvious lt-smash is an idiot who doesn't know what the hell he is talking about.

You certainly went to a great length to make your point.