The attacks achieved their objective. Therefore there is no need to repeat the exercise. People engaged in war, which the leadership of Al Queda certainly conceives itself to be, do not engage in violence simply for its own sake. Violence in war is employed to achieve a desired effect on the enemy's actions.

The intent of the attacks in September '01 was to madden the government and people of the United States, so that the country would be drawn into an extended military engagement in the Moslem world, that would become for the United States the same running economic and political sore, and military quagmire, that Afghanistan was for the Soviet Union. While the initial engagement in Afghanistan did not fulfill these hopes, the Bush administration was kind enough to oblige Al Queda by hurrying to invade and occupy Iraq rather than consolidating the initial success in Afghanistan, and this handily fulfilled the hopes of Al Queda's leadership. Now, owing to the poor decision made in '02, Afghanistan, and more importantly Pakistan, seem to be queuing up to play the same role as some disengagement is undertaken in Iraq.

No purported 'protective measures' of the Bush administration, and surely not the torture of prisoners in custody, had the slightest thing to do with the fact that Al Queda needed to make no further attack, having achieved its objective with the first. Indeed, the program of torture had little to do with securing information on impending attacks on the U.S., and everything to do with wringing false confessions of Al Queda complicity with Saddam Hussein, for domestic political use.

Though people will not like to hear this, the most likely occasion for an attack on the United States itself by Al Queda in future will be actual withdrawl of U.S. combat forces from engagement in the Moslem world....