An Al Queda Summary

Jessica Stern gives a good update on Al Queda today.

UPDATE: Another good link from Winds of Change regarding the status of Al Queda today. This article nicely outlines competing interpretations of defining what Al Queda is.

There are essentially two different views of present day Al Queda:

1. Al Queda is a less of an organization, and more of an idea, or inspiration. BL created an ideological hub for like minded extremist groups from around the world to coalesce around and find inspiration from. This view argues that capturing BL and Zawahiri are of minimal importance to fighting Al Queda.

2. Al Queda is an organization that provides operational support to groups interested in large scale terrorist attacks. This argument argues that while there are small groups that find inspiration from Al Queda, that the larger attacks, like 9/11, 3/11, and the July 7 British bombings are the result of the organization Al Queda, not just the ideology. Under this POV, capturing BL and Zawahir and other members of the pre-9/11 Al Queda leadership is vital to struggle against the organization.

I tend to lean towards the second view of Al Queda, however, even if the first view were proven to be more true, I would argue that capturing BL and Zawahiri is still extrememly important for the retributive. They deserve to be caught for what they did, it is vital to our sense of justice to capture or kill them.