All I have is speculation; if I were the terrorists, I would be very, very afraid, and taking up another line of work would probably be very tempting about now.
For those that don't understand why killing someone 8 years later is such a big deal: we have to send a message to the world. "Mess with the US, and it doesn't matter how long it takes or what we have to do - eventually we *will* find you and we *will* kill you."
That is the new MAD, one that *will* reduce terrorist events against the US.
You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.
Ronald Reagan
40th president of US (1911 - 2004)