Quote:
Originally posted by PhiPsiRuss
Bin Laden was NEVER the main objective in this war. It was widely understood that Al Qaeda was structured in a way that if it was decapitated, it would keep functioning.
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Terrorism picked up a thing or two from the communist playbook: compartmentalize yourself into small cells so that the loss of an operative by capture or death won't kill off the whole organization.
Whacking or capturing Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and or any of the identified top dogs of al-Qaeda won't kill off the organization. You need to be systematic and absolutely ruthless to wipe out all traces of al-Qaeda and any allied terror associations before you can rightfully say 'the war against terrorism is won'. And that's no guarantee that another hothead will find a cache of weapons and start the process all over again.