No. 2 al-Qaida leader in Iraq arrested

[Genx87]

I freely admit that those guys seem to be getting taken out, I'm just saying I'm not so sure it's part of some big plan for beating those organizations...the topic only seems to come up when we bag one, nobody is talking about it the rest of the time. Makes me think it's just good use of an opportunity.

I guess I dont know when else you would bring it up except when you do bag one?

The problem with taking out the pool of talent is that, unlike the Mafia, our actions are doing a lot for recruitment...there seems to be a good chance we're refilling the pool faster than we're emptying it. Granted, the new recruits won't all be bin Laden material, but I still think that's a fundamental issue we haven't addressed very well (if at all).

Targetting the grunts is only useful in the extent that it keeps the gears turning, we're never going to kill enough front-line terrorists to make very much of an impact, but it IS a necessary part of the conflict. As for the money, I think we can at least agree on that.

Nobody knows anything about recruitment and if anybody does they are full of shat. If we had names of the recruits we wouldnt be pussy footing around searching for these people. The simple fact is recruitment may be up, or it may be down, nobody truely knows. But it is some common knowledge among people opposed to the administration that it is up, way up.

I could be wrong, but a lot of the higher ups in AQ were well educated and well backed. There werent many off the street grunts among their ranks. That tells me there is a ceiling or barrier to entry. Once we get them to start taking in ignorant grunts in their upper management it will start to hurt them as the intelligence level drops off.

 

[Starbuck1975]

The problem with taking out the pool of talent is that, unlike the Mafia, our actions are doing a lot for recruitment...there seems to be a good chance we're refilling the pool faster than we're emptying it. Granted, the new recruits won't all be bin Laden material, but I still think that's a fundamental issue we haven't addressed very well (if at all).

I think what we are striving for is, like the mafia, cause them to turn on themselves. We have located and successfully targeted several Al Quaida leaders now due to intelligence from the inside.

If we can create a climate where Bin Laden, and his inner circle, cannot even trust their lieutenants, it is only a matter of time before this paranoia and distrust serves our purposes.