Interesting question

Charles Krauthammer considers why al Qaeda hasn't attacked the U.S. again. Has it attacked any nation in the coalition?

Possible Answers:

We've deterred them. (This isn't in Krauthammer's list.)

We've disrupted it, destroying its base in Afghanistan, dried up much of its funding, captured or killed important leaders and planners.


It has reverted to regional attacks against governments it deems insufficiently Islamist.

It is too proud to stage less spectacular operation than 9/11.

Part of the appeal of al-Qaida ? what it uses to recruit people and funds ? is its mystique. Superhuman feats, brilliant execution, masterful planning. That aura feeds its ideology of historical inevitability, that ultimately it will prevail over Western decadence, because the seeming high-tech West lacks the diabolical and methodical will that Islamism brings to the war.

Could that be it? For the sake of its own mythology, is al-Qaida biding its time until it can pull off the next spectacular?

It reminds me of this piece by Austin Bay, via Instapundit.

Krauthammer's piece ends with a sobering point:

Maybe al-Qaida does lack the capacity for even simple terrorism on U.S. soil. If so, it speaks well for an administration that immediately after Sept. 11 designed and carried out a radically new strategy, both offensive and defensive, to fight the war on terror.

But no one dares say it. It could prove catastrophically wrong tomorrow.

Update: Why is al Qaeda now launching attacks on fellow Muslims?