Yemen expert Gregory Johnsen makes it:
[Anwar] al-Awlaki doesn't even crack the list of the top 10 most dangerous suspects in Al Qaeda's Yemen chapter—let alone worldwide. Qasim al-Raymi, AQAP's military commander, is the single most dangerous individual in the organization, responsible for masterminding numerous suicide attacks. In addition to him, there are handfuls of other operatives who are demonstrably deadlier than Awlaki. Men like Nasser al-Wahayshi, the commander of AQAP, or former Guantánamo Bay detainees like Said Ali al-Shihri and Ibrahim al-Rubaish, all of whom are much more important to the organization's future. Others, like Adil al-Abab, a Yemeni religious figure, play a much larger role in attracting and recruiting would-be suicide bombers. Meanwhile, the face of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is an American, Adam Gadahn (also known as Azzam the American), and there is no standing order for his execution—at least no declaratory position.
Simply put, there is no magic missile solution to the problem of AQAP. The group is too strong, too numerous, and too entrenched to be destroyed by a CIA drone attack. Assassinating Awlaki may make us feel safer, but it won't make us be safer.
There is something really frightening about the idea of the assassination of an American citizen -- even one as despicable as al-Awlaki -- as security theater. Killing al-Awlaki won't seriously damage the operational capabilities of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, argues Johnsen. It may simply help recruit more terrorists.
Also, while I initially believed that a policy targeting American citizens suspected of terrorism for killing represented a new kind of radicalism from the Obama administration, it appears to be mere continuity with the last. Johnsen notes that suspected al-Qaeda member Kamal Darwish, who had joint U.S.-Yemeni citizenship, was killed by a drone attack in Yemen in 2002.
-- A. Serwer
