LONDON - The attempted attacks in London and Glasgow bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida operation, but they lacked a key ingredient: professional execution.
While details are still emerging about the men and the methods behind the plot, analysts say the apparent ineptness in carrying it out indicates the group may have been amateurs working without the guidance or direct support of masterminds in Pakistan or the Middle East.
What are these people smoking? Professional execution?
Two words come to mind when looking at the history of al Quida: blind luck.
The original World Trade Center bombing was a massive failure.
The plan was to bomb the supports, and fill Tower 1 with cyanide gas. As the people fled, the gas would kill them, until the tower eventually collapsed into tower 2. Al Quida expected 10,000 dead. The blast killed 6 and incinerated the cyanide gas. Due to underfunding from al Quida, the bomber didn't have enough explosives to destroy the support, and his own ineptitude led to the cyanide being destroyed.
How about the Cole Bombing? A mild success you say?
Guess what? It was try 2.
Originally, al Quida tried to bomb the USS Sullivan. Due (AGAIN) to their stupidity, they overloaded the boat with explosives and it sank on route to the boat.
Even the Cole bombing was not something to write home about. They wanted to sink the ship and failed. While 17 soldiers died...they saved the boat, and everyone else on board.
Even 9/11, their biggest (and really only) success, was a complete surprise. Al Quida was expecting 100-200 casualties. And if the World Trade Center had been built to specs, with a steel reinforced central shaft, the towers wouldn't have collapsed, and no one would remember the date 9/11. In all of his post 9/11 tapes, Osama was as giddy as a school girl as he gushed how Allah had made the attacks a bigger success than his wildest dreams. He never imagined that the towers would come down. So, despite much of the hand wringing on the right, 9/11 was not the stroke of brilliance of a genius, but merely good luck on Osama's part, and our own pathetic security failures for 2 decades.
Until 9/11, al Quida was near the bottom of the threats to America list...right below Islamic Girl Scouts for Jihad. Despite conservative beliefs...most attacks aren't postponed by the implimentation of the PATRIOT Act (which isn't all bad, nor is it all it's cracked up to be), but by simple stupidity of jihadis. Google Fort Dix attack for more info.
So what does this tell us?
But despite the failures, the attacks did accomplish one goal: creating fear and havoc throughout Britain as police cordoned off streets to search 19 locations, stepped up stop-and-search procedures and banned cars from approaching terminals at many airports.
The plot also brought the specter of Iraq-style violence in Europe, sending the grim message that — with a little luck — any jihadist with a car and easily obtained materials is capable of wreaking carnage.
Even with failure...fear is accomplished. THAT is the true goal of terrorism. Make the people scared. And even if you fail, you have succeeded.
(To wit, this is why terrorists will never attack Wichita mall, where they could never kill more than 20 people...if they blew the whole thing up with a nuke.)
But wait, the article still has one more small truth to impart:
A lack of al-Qaida expertise does not always mean failure, however.
The North African men who blew up four commuter trains in Madrid in 2004 had no apparent links to al-Qaida, but killed nearly 200 people. It is still unclear to what extent the July 7, 2005, London transit bombers received formal al-Qaida training. Their attack killed 52.
200, is more than 6, so these guys did better than al Quida's original WTC bombing.
52 ALSO is more than 6.
Oh, and al Quida claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings...so that bunk about these guys having no connection to al Quida...seems suspect.
Bottom line:
Liberal groups will claim that these terrorists are incompetent. And in that they're right. They'll use THAT to claim that there is no terrorist threat. In that they're wrong.
On the other hand, conservatives will use this to say how much of a threat al Quida is to our everyday existance...which is absolute bunk. They'll point to George Bush's PATRIOT Act as what's protected us from this, which is also BS.
If it hadn't been for ridiculously stupid government officials ignoring clear warning signs, 9/11 never would've happened. Terrorist attacks can only succeed if we are DELIBERATELY looking the other way. We need a basic level of competitency from not only our elected officials, but from our citizenry. THAT, and not silly laws, will protect us.
Well, that, and the abject stupidity of our enemies, who are operating on a stone age mentality.....
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