Based on the people l've spoken to, I think the impression is: Is America safer from Al Qaeda? Yes. Is America weaker as a nation because we have overspent and over-focused on Al Qaeda? Yes. I think that would be the conclusion that people seem to have come to and that I tend to agree with.
Richard EngelThe Syrian border town of Qa'im was the main gateway Islamic radicals used to go to Iraq. Syria became the passageway for extremists from Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim nations to fight a jihad against American forces in Iraq.
Richard EngelWere all bloggers and punks and rebels with cameras. There is absolutely no respect for career journalists anymore.
Richard EngelFences and walls can be effective and even soothing, at least for those who build them.
Richard EngelPutting a bomb in a dumpster or putting it with a timer by a race, it is not the kind of - similar to the attacks that we've seen where people open fire with assault rifles and things like that.
Richard EngelHow can you claim infallibility and claim that in these 114 [drone] strikes there was just one mistake -- one person killed that was a civilian -- and at the same time say, 'Well, we don't really know how many people were killed or who they were, but we know they weren't civilians'? I don't know how you can do that.
Richard Engel