Forgive my cynacism, but how many “top” al-queda they got?
You don’t get it. They have so many because they’re constantly replaced, thanks to the men and women on the ground and in the air. Think cells, but many beehives.
Are you familiar with what happened to the Luftwaffe after the introduction of the P-51? Our guys started slaughtering their fighter jocks. Fast promotions and hurried training put inexperienced pilots in positions they never would have gotten near in the early days of the war. If we had known who was in all those planes getting shot down, there would have been a headline every couple of days reading "Top Luftwaffe pilot shot down by 8th Air Force."
The same thing's happening with Al Qaida, not least because we are trying to gut their command structure, and doing a pretty good job of it.