Threshold Uncertain

clipped from www.npr.org There has been some debate within this group, for example, about whether the Sept. 11 attacks were a good idea in hindsight — given that they prompted the U.S. to go to war against al-Qaida in Afghanistan and destroy the group's sanctuaries there. Brachman says such considerations may influence al-Qaida leaders as they consider whether to hit the U.S. again — and how hard. "That type of example — that we will react violently if the cost to the United States is high enough — shapes the way they calculate whether or not to use weapons of mass destruction in the future," Brachman says. "There's a certain threshold of pain we're willing to accept, and if you exceed it we will respond aggressively. And I think they are trying to keep the pain that they're inflicting on us below a certain threshold at this point." But neither Brachman nor other terrorism experts who monitor al-Qaida thinking can be certain what conclusions the group will reach.