Terrorists need an enemy

I've been thinking about the recent message from al-Qaeda's number two jerk, Ayman al-Zawahiri, criticizing Barack Obama and promising to give him problems.

Al-Zawahiri is really grasping at straws here.

He acknowledges that Obama's father was a Muslim, but slams Obama for being a Christian today.

He complains that Obama is not the right kind of African American.

And he criticizes Obama for respecting Jewish customs.

I used to naively assume that an Obama presidency would be a good thing as far as al-Qaeda is concerned. Obama is the opposite of Bush. He is not arrogant, he is not a war hawk, and he is not a bully. He is reasonable, sensible, and worldly. He would not play chicken with the terrorists, like Bush has. And his middle name is "Hussein".

But al-Qaeda has found a way to twist reality in order to make Obama look bad in their own minds.

Because terrorists need an enemy.

Without a specific enemy, the terrorists have no clear-cut purpose.

Without a specific enemy, the future of al-Qaeda is uncertain, as is the power of its leaders.

And this desperate stretch is a sign that they are now motivated as much by fear as by hate. And that may be their ultimate weakness.