CTC Sentinel. Volume 1, Issue 10, September 2008. Seven Years After 9/11: More is Not Always Better

Abstract

Seven years after the 9/11 attacks, there is good news and bad news. First, the good news: al-Qa'ida has not been able to attack again inside the United States. No one could have possibly predicted this on September 12, 2001, when we looked and felt so vulnerable. In the past seven years, al-Qa'ida has been able to strike the non-Islamic West in only two cities, London and Madrid. Both of these attacks were conducted by local cells with varying levels of connectivity to the central or strategic hub of al-Qa'ida. No matter how you spin it, and even if they attack again on the day this article, is published, this is not an impressive record for an organization that looked so powerful on 9/11. It is important to recognize our success in mitigating al-Qa'ida's impact on the world -- even in the midst of several years of bad news coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA493784

Entities

People

  • Michael Sheehan

Organizations

  • United States Military Academy

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter IED
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil War
  • Counterterrorism
  • Explosives
  • Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Man Borne Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Personnel Management
  • Social Sciences
  • Societies
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • United States Military Academy
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.