The return of terrorism to the US -- it really doesn't matter that the attempt to blow up a DC-bound flight actually failed -- is bringing us very close to the days of the so-called "war on terror".

Though the term has been banished by the Obama White House (and thus by extension the mainstream media outside of Fox News), tonight the New York Times is actually talking about the US widening the terror war, this time to Yemen, where Al-Qaeda remains strong.

In the midst of two unfinished major wars, the United States has quietly opened a third, largely covert front against Al Qaeda in Yemen.

A year ago, the Central Intelligence Agency sent many field operatives with counterterrorism experience to the country, according a former top agency official. At the same time, some of the most secretive Special Operations commandos have begun training Yemeni security forces in counterterrorism tactics, senior military officers said.

Immediately after 9/11, everyone knew that the center of the terror world was Afghanistan, even if it took some time to put the pieces of the world together.

While Afghanistan is a total mess, we're pretty sure that there are few forces in the country organized to pull off an attack on US soil.

But this time, after the Detroit attack, Yemen was the first country that was identified. The enemy is scattered and disorgnized in one place, and yet organized and capable of attacking (kind of) in another.