Al Qaeda is still a threat, although not.....

[DaBurglar]

....an existential one.....While everyone's typical short term attention and emotions are tuned into ISIS and what the media (all MEDIA, Liberal, Conservative and everything in between) decide to serve up to the ignorant, impressionable masses......Al Qaeda quietly bides its time, replenishes its ranks and waits to strike.......With ISIS losing ground, troops, money and most important, INFLUENCE, Al Qaeda is looking for a chance to pounce.......and regain its status and standing as the VARSITY team in the Jihad against the West and enemies of Islam.Just as Osama bin Laden had utter contempt for  Zarqawi and the forerunner to ISIS (al qaeda in Iraq)  because that group indiscriminately killed Muslims without a second thought, the current al qaeda looks upon Isis in pretty much the same manner.  My point?   Soon we will be hearing, and debating, and screaming for something to be done (again) about AL QAEDA!    And soon the Right Wing racist nut jobs will be blaming Obama for NOT paying enough attention to Al Qaeda........the circus just goes on and on and on......

[olds442jetaway]

Speaking of circus DB, let's hope this country does not turn into the infamous Hartford circus tent fire July 6, 1944. I spoke at length with a survivor about 20 years ago. She has since passed, but told my wife and I all about it and how she survived. It has its own web site and video. I know you are a history buff, so you might want to check it out. In the meantime, we both know there are horrific plans in the making for new terrorist acts in this country. No matter how many of their leaders we take out, there are unlimited ones waiting in the wings to step in. Since they brainwash the young at an early age over there and even here, there is probably no way to eliminate them in our lifetime.

[DaBurglar]

Speaking of circus DB, let's hope this country does not turn into the infamous Hartford circus tent fire July 6, 1944. I spoke at length with a survivor about 20 years ago. She has since passed, but told my wife and I all about it and how she survived. It has its own web site and video. I know you are a history buff, so you might want to check it out. In the meantime, we both know there are horrific plans in the making for new terrorist acts in this country. No matter how many of their leaders we take out, there are unlimited ones waiting in the wings to step in. Since they brainwash the young at an early age over there and even here, there is probably no way to eliminate them in our lifetime.olds, you are truly a wise man, and you hit the NAIL right on the ......nail!    seriously, this is precisely WHY the president does not, and has not, acted precipitously in the face of hysterical crtitics DEMANDING he do "SOMETHING", "ANYTHING"  to these whack jobs who truly are nothing more than evil, angry individuals with a ready supply of hate.....the actual number of these "leaders" is pretty small, but they can wield outsized influence due to other factors which amplify the hate and ill will......let's face it, the USA already does and has a lot of things about it that make it very easy for the rest of the world to dislike intensely who we are and what we stand for.....when you then have someone like a Bin Laden come along with real charisma and intellect, who can tap into these otherwise innocuous sentiments of resentment and spin them to impressionable, hopeless young men who actually believe that a "holy God" is going to allow them to defile and screw 70 female virgins right in front of him in his own "house" (i.e. Heaven).....!     You cannot bomb or invade or occupy such a thing out of existence.....You cannot keep doing the same things over and over in the face of threats like this, which is essentially a Philosophy or belief system......you cannot bomb or shoot a "belief" to death......  WHAT YOU CAN DO IS WHAT THE USA HAS ESSENTIALLY BEEN DOING going back to the Bush Admin, which is emphasizing intelligence gathering,  using the maximum available special forces and surgical strikes to take out the truly evil ringleaders (and they DO want to be seen and heard so you CAN find them and we have been doing so.....Bin laden was a true exception to the rule in terms of being so difficult to find for so long, but only because he was both disciplined as well as a coward!    You are correct Olds, there are still plenty of Horrors to come simply because the human imagination for such things is limitless.......and the fact is, as President kennedy himself ironically stated, their is NO DEFENSE at all from a person (or group of people) who are willing to DIE in the act, or attempt, of killing someone else......the only hope is to try and be strong and outlast them and help "dry up" the availability of recruits by killing them first and foremost with Kindness or positive means (like education and jobs and a vision, or HOPE for a future).....if that fails, then sadly you must try and kill them for real WHEN they attempt the badness that they plan....you need to out think and out tech them as much as possible (which is how the USA dealt with the Kamikaze threat in WWII.....they outhought, they constantly revised tactics and stayed a half step ahead of the Japanese and their dwindling supply of aircraft....)

[olds442jetaway]

Speaking of WW2 for a moment, our own tech and intelligence did wonders in that war. I hate to even use the term...Jap zeroes, but that is what all of my relatives called them and they had all been through the war. Some came home with injuries that never healed both upstairs and physical. Anyway, the zeros flimsy construction partly of wood allowed us to shoot many down because we would hit the fuel that spilled out and they would burn. They left out self sealing fuel tanks to save weight and later in the war suffered the consequences. Early on in the war, their kill ratio was over 10 to one until our tech caught up with them. Hopefully, we are working on the same now fighting our current enemies. The problem....no uniforms....We don't even know who they are. Could be a neighbor down the street. That is one of our biggest problems we are and will be facing.

[DaBurglar]

Speaking of WW2 for a moment, our own tech and intelligence did wonders in that war. I hate to even use the term...Jap zeroes, but that is what all of my relatives called them and they had all been through the war. Some came home with injuries that never healed both upstairs and physical. Anyway, the zeros flimsy construction partly of wood allowed us to shoot many down because we would hit the fuel that spilled out and they would burn. They left out self sealing fuel tanks to save weight and later in the war suffered the consequences. Early on in the war, their kill ratio was over 10 to one until our tech caught up with them. Hopefully, we are working on the same now fighting our current enemies. The problem....no uniforms....We don't even know who they are. Could be a neighbor down the street. That is one of our biggest problems we are and will be facing.I agree with all of this, especially your knowledge of WWII and the specifics of the Mitsubishi A6M "zero" fighter......it was indeed the scourge of the skies, best fighter in the world until late 1942.....the USA did indeed capture a Zero fighter almost totally intact, when a 19 year old Japanese Pilot crash landed in the Aleutian Islands (the forgotten theater of WWII in the Pacific)......from that zero the US & Allies quickly deduced its weaknesses and Voila!  They were never a threat again until late 1944 when the Japanese turned them into human smart bombs in the Ill fated Kamikaze campaign which, although MILITARILY a failure, was a huge psychological BLOW to the US & British Fleets that were closing in on the Japanese Home Islands.If you speak with any US Naval veteran from WWII in the PAcific, they will tell you facing the Kamikaze was truly harrowing......that is why the similarity between what happened THEN & what is going on NOW is striking......these Terrorists (Alqeda, Isis or whomever) are NOT a EXISTENTIAL threat, but what they are indeed are potent Psychological threats......they attempt to get their enemy to ACT and think a specific way, that is how VICTORY is defined.   In the Japanese example of WWII, the objective of the Kamikaze was NOT a outright military victory, but instead they wanted to simply DETER the US from advancing any further by imposing such horrific casualties and psychological TERROR that the enemy (the USA) would STOP doing what it was doing......likewise, today's terrosits, despite GRANDIOSE speeches and bloodcurdling proclamations by their cowardly "leaders" that they are going to WIPE the planet of infidels, in reality their goals are usually more simple and clearcut, such as wanting the USA out of muslim lands (namely Iraq and Afghanistan....what a surprise huh?)Now if terrorists acquire NUKES or something similar (or worse, like BIO weapons), that's another story, but still one that needs SOBER thinking in order to deal with.....simply responding to hysterical people like the now infamous woman in FOX NEWS (I forget her name) who demanded she wanted Obama to "BOMB THEM, BOMB THEM again....and then BOMB them some more!" is NOT how you defeat these evil people.

[olds442jetaway]

Unfortunately, just bombing will not do it. You can't bomb an idea, ideology, or brainwashing.