In case you missed it, Mark Mazetti a good piece in yesterday's New York Times on the growing independce of al-Qa'ida's affiliates. Money quote: "With their ranks thinned by a relentless barrage of drone strikes . . . Al Qaeda's operatives in Pakistan resemble a driver holding a steering wheel that is no longer attached to the car."
I think this observation, if true, goes right to the heart of the question of how much killing bin Laden mattered. It suggests that bin Laden was active right up until the time of his death, but unlike David Ignatius' and others' interpretation, that his activity was largely confined to telling the person gripping the detached steering wheel which way to turn it rather than directing an organization with the same capacity it had on September 11, 2001.
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