Now What?

It is a fact that

Terrorism experts have puzzled over al-Qaeda's apparent unwillingness after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to use car bombs, improvised explosives and small arms to conduct assaults in the United States. The group appeared fixated on orchestrating another dramatic mass-casualty event, such as the simultaneous downing of several commercial airliners.

And it is apparently a fact according to noted terrorism expert Michael Leiter that

"al-Qaeda in Pakistan is at one of its weakest points organizationally," but he noted that "regional affiliates and allies can compensate for the potentially decreased willingness of al-Qaeda in Pakistan - the deadliest supplier of such training and guidance - to accept and train new recruits."

So al-Qadeda is fixated on large-scale events and its "deadliest" branch is at its weakest therefore we need to be on the alert because

Al-Qaeda and its allies are likely to attempt small-scale, less sophisticated terrorist attacks in the United States, senior Obama administration officials said Wednesday, noting that it's extremely difficult to detect such threats in advance.

Like the Times Square Bomber. 

The deadliest terrorists are on the decline, yeah, the leading terrorist group is fixated on the dramatic, therefore we must fear incompetent amateurs.  What an odd thing to say.