According to this piece in Time magazine, al Qaeda was within 45 days of launching a gas attack in the New York City subway system, but the attack was called of by Zawahiri. If it is true, it could mean that Zawahiri, and his boss, Osama bin Laden, have finally reached an understanding about how to win this war. They can win it by refraining from attacking Americans in their homeland, thus convincing them that there really isn't a war going on at all, thus creating the political conditions that will bring the Democrats back to power, thus leading to a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. I have long thought that this was the only reasonable explanation as to why they have not hit us here at home since 9/11.

In Afghanistan, the fighting has intensified and more airstrikes have been called in, according to this story in the Washington Post.

David Warren may have hit upon something in this piece, in which he postulates that what we may be seeing is not a resurgent Islam clashing with a collapsing Christian civilization but, rather, two collapsing civilizations clashing as each writhes in its death agony. An interesting thought.