Al Qaida on the run? Maybe Not.

Via AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's top two intelligence officials said Tuesday that al-Qaida is weaker and U.S. intelligence agencies are smarter since the Sept. 11 attacks - but the terrorists are nowhere near giving up.

In his first week on the job, CIA director David Petraeus told members of Congress that al-Qaida's recent losses of Osama bin Laden and others have opened "an important window of vulnerability."

Petraeus predicted that al-Qaida leaders may even flee to Afghanistan or leave South Asia altogether to escape the CIA, which has quadrupled covert drone strikes against al-Qaida under the Obama administration. He testified at a joint congressional intelligence committee hearing.

Petraeus and the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, both said that al-Qaida's Yemeni offshoots and others are growing more daring and dangerous - a sentiment shared by lawmakers.

The chairman of the House intelligence committee, Mike Rogers, R-Mich., warned against dismissing new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri as "feckless" and dismissed suggestions that "the threat of terrorism has significantly waned." He said he feared Americans becoming complacent.

Does America have the stomach to continue the war on terror? Does it require a continued presence in Afghanistan or are drone strikes, better intel and more groping at airports enough? To be honest those are not easy questions, nor am I trying to be more than a little facetious. The important thing is to not let our guards down.