RealClearPolitics posts Austin Bay's timely column: "Al Qaeda remains trapped in a Vietnam fantasy." Bay reports regarding the recent attacks he analyzes in his column:

US Navy Capt. Hal Pittman, CENTCOM's senior spokesman, told me Tuesday that the terrorists seek media coverage of these attacks "to empower their cause, break the momentum of representational government (in Iraq) and dissuade the coalition to continue its support."

Zarqawi's gang "used a fire truck at Husaybah as a car bomb. That's theatrics if you've ever seen theatrics," Pittman said. "They're trying to create a spectacular event, overrun a patrol or border outpost somewhere, an event with huge media value that would promote their cause and make them seem more powerful than they are."

In today's post at his Austin Bay blog, Bay includes more quotes from his interview with Capt. Pittman. Keep scrolling down his site for more good stuff.