The new face of terror
The West thought it was winning the battle against jihadist terrorism. It should think again
A FEW months ago Barack Obama declared that al-Qaeda was “on the path to defeat”. Its surviving members, he said, were more concerned for their own safety than with plotting attacks on the West. Terrorist attacks of the future, he claimed, would resemble those of the 1990s—local rather than transnational and focused on “soft targets”. His overall message was that it was time to start winding down George Bush’s war against global terrorism.
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “The new face of terror”
From the September 28th 2013 edition
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