Just maybe

“No civilians were killed or injured.”

Somalia air strike failed to kill al-Qaida targets, says US | The Guardian

"It's pretty clear that this administration will continue to go after al-Qaida," the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, told a press conference. "People who think they can establish a safe haven for al-Qaida any place have to know that we are going to find them."

US launches air strikes at al-Qaida suspects | The Guardian

I think fear that many people in the US goverment, military and intelligence honestly think that they could fight "terrorism" (Or al-Qaida, as they call it) with AC-130 gunships and cruise missiles.

There are people with some sort of rationality in the US, alas, not in a position that they could do much about this:

"It's akin to the heart of darkness, just shooting into the jungle," said Bob Baer, a former CIA agent. "At the end of the day you are just making more enemies."

On a side note, I find it strange that it seems like the US has with al-Qaida only one enemy. Everybody they kill, everybody they "arrest", everybody they suspect of anything is automatically called "a member of al-Qaida". Why don't people cry out "BULLSHIT!", I ask myself? Are people really that stupid, that they believe those lies? This is Vietnam all over again, just exchange Vietcong with al-Qaida, exchange the region around Vietnam with the entire world.

If the US continues this kind of logic, it is only a question of time if the next al-Qaida suspects in the US are killed by an AC-130 flying somewhere over Philadelphia, Seattle or Des Moines (while wiping out half a block). But those in power in the US may be ruthless, but they are not stupid. I guess when the US military starts carpet bombing LA, maybe the people in the US would wake up. Just maybe.