rdx-fx wrote:
Possibly because they're not willing to get another one of their host nations invaded for blowing up 'Ma & Pa's Last Stop Before Mexico Gas Station'? (After 8 years of Clinton and Al Quaeda trading Cruise Missiles for MeatGrenades, I'm pretty sure they didn't expect 9/11 to result in the invasion of Afghanistan..)
Possibly because they're more concerned with the 'big ticket' attacks - like the airport plot that failed recently.
Bigger the attack, the harder it is to pull off.
Possibly because they're having more fun with their EFP's and IED's blowing up US soldiers in Iraq. Less travel distance, easier targets, etc.
Possibly because they don't want to give the US public another reminder as to why we're fighting them - better to let the US 'Paper Tiger' get bored with the war and withdraw troops. That way they can claim a /win.
Possibly they're playing their game of Geopolitical Chess with some finesse, and waiting to see what happens next?
See where the major players line up.. let their current moves 'soak in' and gauge their effect?
Perhaps they're too busy getting their asses handed to them in Iraq & Afghanistan right now?
Put shortly, if they started pulling the daily/weekly MeatGrenade-in-a-Marketplace crap in the US (like other terror groups have done in Israel) - the American public would change their opinions, and insist the military 'take off the gloves' and finish them off with a quickness.
Unless they could pull a major coup out of their ass (like, some major government building), the repercussions aren't worth the effort.
Also, I wonder how many attempted attacks have been caught by our FBI/NSA/DHS/etc.. and I wonder how well compromised are the hostile terrorist organizations? (especially the domestic ones.. wiretaps for everyone!! )
Now, the OP does bring up some interesting questions.
Too many answers that fit those questions, are directly into Tin Foil Hat Land though...
(Being serious here)
Could we send over some of the D&ST liberatti to find out? I'm sure they'd greet you all with hugs and flowers for your understanding of their cause.
(now I'm being a smartass)
You do bring up a good point in how the Afghanistan invasion disrupted the al Qaeda organization. However, they are not limited to that country, and the presence of American soldiers in the Middle East in active battlegrounds means that they can attack soldiers instead of carrying out lond distance attacks.
As for the 'airport plot', remember that it was a small group of amateurs with no experience, no weapons, and no possibility of ever doing what they planned. Most of these plots 'foiled' are by people who don't know how, are supplied and coerced only by government agents seeking to arrest them, and are not even close to performing it.