T. A. Gardner
Serial Thread Killer
There will always be more rats to lead the charge. How many 'heads' of AQ has the U.S taken out?
That's why you target the middle management. Terrorist networks look like a bunch of individual cells with a key member linked to one or more other cells so they can network on a larger scale. Take out the key member(s) in each cell and the rest are useless.
That's why a smackdown against the known top leadership isn't as effective as wiping out all the people who are the links to getting anything done.