And Now for Something Completely Different

Here’s Austin Bay:

Al Qaeda’s terrorists thought they could hide en masse in Afghanistan. They were wrong. We can debate the success of the battle of Tora Bora, but for the first time in 25 years, Kabul has no curfew. Al Qaeda’s latest gambit is to lie low in Earth’s alleys and dark corners. All politics is local? American counter-terror warfare can be extraordinarily local. The United States is demonstrating even isolated, tribal locales where everyone’s a cousin aren’t hermetic. Al Qaeda pledged a global battle without borders, and it’s getting one. The Predator attack shows that U.S. counter-terror intelligence has improved. Satellites, UAVs and other cutting-edge technologies extend U.S. military presence in ways bin Laden failed to anticipate. Hellfire’s laser-light can illuminate a terrorist’s darkest corner.

There’s much more, and it’s all good. Required Reading.