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I imagine, that the military campaigns abroad, the political maneuvering to cut off funding, and isolate them all have had an effect. The destruction of the Taliban and the war in Iraq as well as our actions in the Philippines and elsewhere has perked the ears of those despot regimes that consider playing with terror on our soil. If Iran or Syria can be proven to be behind anything that happens in the US, their regimes will go away, and they know this. Anything they do, and surely they are, will be subtle and hard to trace.

That combined with a people in the US that after 911 was “Islamophobic” (According to the MSM) and kept a watchful eye on things (The average Joe has a more profound affect than any intel agency), law enforcement, FBI, CIA, and NSA all combined probably have made the organized terrorist groups life a little difficult. The total nut job who comes out of the blue is difficult to stop (Kennedy or Reagan shooter for example), but the terror cell has command and control, lines of communication, trains people and has to recruit them, needs money and is fed intel..... For a terrorist organization life today is probably a tad bit more difficult than what it was seven years ago.

One also can’t understate the efforts of our allies out there. They too clamped down their laws, search better, monitor Mosques, changed their deportation laws as Germany and France have. They look a little closer at how money is moving as well. While to some degree they wish away the GWOT they sure tightened their laws and do things differently today. Much of the trash that wants to terrorize us comes through these nations and them clamping down in a way makes it more difficult since they act like a big filter.

We also let loose the reigns internationally. No longer do you hear the US make negative comments when the Russians hunt down Chechens. And what goes on in that Egyptian prison is also never commented on in our political area. We have empowered many or don’t obstruct others as they go after these groups and people who they see as threats themselves often. When Israel kidnaps an Iranian scientist recently our political apparatus stays quiet. Strange how that works, huh?

On the other hand, as Rice said correctly, they only have to get it right once while we have to get it right all the time. Bush on more than one occasion has made mention of foiled attacks on us, but I imagine at some point something will come through. Nothing is impervious and the enemy also learns from his mistakes and adapts to overcome our measures. However, prior to 911 we were attacked every 16-18 months and since then we have had basically zero successful attacks on US soil. We are doing something right! Although success in this case means nothing happens, and nothing is no newsworthy story.

All in all, I imagine the terrorist group like AQ is having a hard time.

-IMHO