and the need for a new strategy reflects the fact that today's principle threat no longer comes from a centralized al qaeda leadership. instead, it comes from decentralized al qaeda affiliates and extremists with agendas focused in the country where they operate and this lessons the possibility of large scale 9/11 attacks against the homeland but heightens the danger of u.s. personnel overseas being attacked as we saw in benghazi. it heightens the danger to less defensible targets as we saw in a shopping mall in nairobi. so we have to develop a strategy that matches this diffuse threat. one that expands our reach without sending forces that stretch our military too thin or stir up local resentments.