Hellfire II Missile

It looks like over the last few months, we have found a strategy for fighting Al Qaeda that works pretty well: Shooting them with missiles.  Who would have thought that having intelligence operative locate high value targets in their operation and then have the same intelligence operatives arrange for Hellfire missile strikes on the target would be so effective.  The author of this article from the LA Times is almost as good as I am at expressing surprise that this strategy is working so well.

I am sure that Barack Obama is happy that this strategy is working, because he hasn’t done anything yet to prevent these attacks from being carried out.  However, I bet he is a little disappointed that the success of this program made it unnecessary for him to make and send a video eCard to Osama bin Laden to wish him Happy Birthday back on March 10.  Of course, if Obama’s actions to disarm airline pilots, are any indication of his attitudes for preventing terrorism, then we shouldn’t put it past him to start disarming aerial drones.  If pilots of jet airliners aren’t responsible enough to carry weapons, then who is to say that the video game warrior class that controls the fleet of aerial drones should have access to hellfire missiles.  I know, I know, I am ignoring the extraordinarily high number of shooting rampages performed by disgruntled airline pilots since September 11, but we can’t let the actions of the tainted few affect our attitudes toward the entire group.

Armed Drone

Anyway, if you thought that blowing up Al Qaeda terroris… I mean operativ… I mean enemy combatants.  There I said it.  ENEMY COMBATANTS!  If you thought that blowing up enemy combatants with missiles was an effective strategy, apparently blowing them up is only half the battle.  Surprisingly, when you stop trying to get the Pakistani government’s permission, no one is able to tip off the terrorists, so they are unable to escape from pending attacks.  With such a high number of Al Qaeda leaders getting blown up, the organization is falling apart.  Apparently, not knowing who to trust is destabilizing to an organization like Al Qaeda.  At this point they are doing a pretty good job of killing each other off, since someone has to be informing on them to the Americans.