What Is Al-Qaeda Without Its Boss?

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By now it's a truism that terrorism can't be eradicated 100%. Even in the U.S., which is under extraordinary security, officials fear an attack at any time. And liquidating the al-Qaeda command will only fix part of the problem. The long-term solution requires tackling the underlying political, economic and social roots of terrorism--unresolved demands for Palestinian rights, perversion of Islam by radical clerics, corruption and poverty in many Arab states and grievances over U.S. policy in the region. Bin Laden and his lieutenants didn't start the wave of Islamic terrorism; they only rode it for a while. Which is why they won't be totally defeated, even in the flames of an-Nar.