10/12 early: AWACS coverage

[juju]

Not quite true. While the cells are semiautonomous after being dispatched for a mission, their training, command and control and finance are a bit more centralized than that. It's not so much like Gnutella but more like Napster.

Well, I suppose you're right in that it's not an entirely 1-to-1 analogy, but I still think it's an accurate one.

With Napster, if you take out the central server, the networks stops working. This is not the case with al-Quaeda. killing Osama will cause the network to take a hit in organizational efficiency, but the network will still go on. Other members will step up to the plate. Many people have already speculated that if he's taken out, he'll be seen as a martyr and another al-Queda member will take his place.

I've lost the link now, but I read one news article where a "funding" cell was broken up inside the U.S.. Its sole purpose was to provide funding and resources to al-Quaeda. So, i'm sure Osama does provide funding...supposedly he even founded this organization. But I suspect that it's designed to go on without him.

Don't get me wrong...killing him is a good step and we should do it. But this attack is being played out as potentially having a large benefit when in fact it may not.