So this week we saw Department of Homeland Security, Michael Churtoff, say that he had a gut feeling that Al Qaeda would try to attack somewhere in the U.S.. Then ABC News reported that the there had been a "Graduation" of Jihadists in Pakistan and that they were now headed to the West. There were other stories in the news, usually from unnamed Justice Department and Department of Defense sources that confirmed a variety of nightmares to come.
My only comment is: When were they never a threat?
See, I'm not saying that Al Qaeda isn't planning a strike on the U.S., they're ALWAYS planning a strike on America, it's just that this story plays into the media's theme of failure in Iraq and specifically that our involvement there has been a boon to Al Qaeda and is now enjoying a resurgence. While Iraq hasn't helped the fact is that Al Qaeda had 20,000 men in their training camps in Afghanistan back in October, 2001, and 10,000 of these men scattered to the winds before we started attacking the camps. Some of them have turned up in Iraq but most of them are unaccounted for. 9/11 was carried out by only 24 men. That 10,000 number, even if it's high, should give wise people pause because they can be anywhere today.
So while all this attention is probably good (the State Department Travel Warning of August, 2001, stating that Al Qaeda was planning to hijack civilian jetliners went largely unnoticed by the news media), I think that it's too bad that the press still hasn't figured out that the terrorists declared war on us first and that they have yet to call it all off.
Welcome to the party.
