'The war on Terror' score card

Apparently I'm in a war against a concept, and so is everyone I share a hemisphere with.

"Now now, that joke has been made before," I hear you cry.

Well yes it has, but the joke is worth repeating. We are in a war that has no clear goal. Even the Vietnam war aimed to kick the Viet Cong out of Northern and Southern Vietnam; yes, that's right, the Vietnam war had more direction than this current one.

The dead horse flogging will cease however in favour of a quick score card on one of the big players in the war against terror - Al Qaeda. How have they been doing since the war on terror began?

Presumably we, in the west, want to stop this organisation gaining political influence and bombing people. I know this would certainly be my aim if I was in charge of the anti-Al-Qaeda efforts.

The organisation was formed in 1988, and until 2001 we had barely heard of it by comparison with today. In 1993 it was involved in attacks on the World Trade Centre. Elsewhere Al-Qaeda is blamed for working with Somalian Rebels and Hezbollah when they attack American interests. In 1998 they are heavily involved with the bombing of US embassies and in 2000 they attack the USS Cole killing 17 American servicemen. Then in 2001 they change the world.

Since 2001 Al-Qaeda has not waxed and waned. It has bombed ships such as the Limburg (since renamed the Maritime Jewel) in 2002, they have attacked Glasgow, Istanbul, Madrid, London, Riyadh, Mombasa, Ghriba; these are only the attacks that succeeded. There have been numerous other attacks that have been stopped by security services, if we are to believe what we are told.

In Iraq they have caused devastation with high profile attacks with some calling them the most dangerous threat to the US forces there.

This is not an unimportant point - the September 11th attacks are constantly used as justification for activities in Iraq and Afghanistan and yet we appear to have not subdued the organisation responsible. Indeed, we may well have encouraged it.