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In a certain sense it doesn't matter. A terrorist stopped or killed is a terrorist out of business.

But finding the links, finding the connections, identifying the players is part of what this war is about. We're not fighting the Nazis here. The enemy has no home territory (at least not much of one in the traditional sense) wears no uniforms, and has no clear command and control. Before we take them out we've got to find them.

I didn't post this because I thought it surprising that there is a link to al-Qaeda. I assumed that when first hearing the story. The hope here is that these guys will talk, and reveal a bit more of the connections, maybe leading to other take downs. Getting al-Zarqawi and those close to him wouldn't be the end of it, but it would go a long way in hampering them.

I've not yet read the link from Valin (thanks for linking), but commenting a bit about the identity of al-Qaeda, I hope that most people are beginning to get the idea that AQ is not a tightly controlled, hierachical, positively definable organization in itself. They don't carry membership cards and members don't learn the secret hand shake after getting inducted. The corporate or business franchise model comes closer to reality, I think. Going a bit further, I could imagine that it extends to a certain mind-set that results in certain affiliations.

Just about all of us on this forum have some flavor of conservative mind-set. Many of us are active posters. Many more lurkers. A good percentage of us are registered Republicans. Some may be party volunteers. A few may actually be elected to some office at some level of government. Some may be followers of Pat Buchanan, and won't usually vote for a Republican. The point here is that the mind-set results in affiliations that are somewhat predictable, but are not homogenous. I don't want to carry the analogy too far, but if someone found out I'm an active poster here, they would have a good idea of my mind set, and a good idea that I may also be affiliated with the Republican party.

But finding the links, finding the connections, identifying the players is part of what this war is about.

YES! So much of this war is being fought so far below the radar screen that it won't see the light of day for decades(if ever). These guys are REAL easy to kill or capture IF you can find them.

I guess to use your Nazi example it makes about as much difference to me if we were shooting Nazi's from the northern german region or the southern. They were all Nazi's.

Indeed if we can get info about and/or disrupt one group of al-qaeda or some other group its good.

But there are those, not suggesting you are among them, that say but that group isn't al-qaida. Inferring that we are targeting the wrong group. Case in point Iraq. It doesn't matter any more than quibbling about which division of the german army you were attacking and only trying to attack the "bad" ones.

Heck just flatten every terrorist you come across or those who harbor them and I'll be happy.