What Islamist Terrorist Threat?

Shikha Dalmia argues "Al Qaeda doesn't have what it takes to hurt America"

In her well-reasoned Op-Ed in The Daily, the world's first iPad newspaper, Dalmia asks if the $2 trillion dollar "Global War on Terror" has been a complete waste of treasure?  Have we expended the lives of 5000 American servicemen and women for little or no return?  She wonders aloud whether "post-9/11 security has made America invulnerable" or if "the Islamists never posed that a big threat to begin with?"  These are tough questions.  Shall we ignore them if they have unhappy answers?

Thanks for Bruce Schneier for the link to Dalmia's essay.

On a related note - strange and peripheral as it may be - the US Army ordered its PsyOps team in Afghanistan to apply its propaganda skills to influence to congressional delegations visiting Camp Eggers in Kabul.  That's illegal in case anyone cares...

Who is fighting who?

UPDATED TO ADD: Consider complimenting this quick read with this podcast of an excellent LSE panel titled The Changing Geostrategic Landscape in the Middle East.  We've got some thinking to do.