Fareed Zakaria has a must-read Newsweek column on "the rise of a new phenomenon in global politics: terrorism that is not state-sponsored but society-sponsored."
Al Qaeda has lost its base in Afghanistan, two thirds of its leaders have been captured or killed, its funds are being frozen. And yet terror attacks mount from Indonesia to Casablanca to Spain. "These attacks are not being directed by Al Qaeda. They are being inspired by it," the official told me. "I'm not even sure it makes sense to speak of Al Qaeda because it conveys the image of a single, if decentralized, group. In fact, these are all different, local groups that have in common only ideology and enemies."
This is the new face of terror: dozens of local groups across the world connected by a global ideology.
