We're Number 2!

As has been observed elsewhere (no link -- can't remember where), AQ sure seems to have a lot of number 2s:

Al Qaeda's No. 2 operative in Iraq, Hamed Jumaa Al Saeedi, has been arrested, the U.S. military and Iraq's national security adviser announced Sunday.

Here's a handy list of captured or killed Al Qaeda in Iraq #2s. They're up to 39 so far.

Who exactly is drawing up the organizational chart for these guys? If it's a standard pyramid configuration, they must have hundreds upon hundreds of 3s and 4s, maybe thousands of 5s, 6s and 7s.

(And then of course, there's this: Al-Qaeda's No. 114 Killed On Office Depot Run.)

In the amusing little trifle of a movie American Psycho (and probably the book, too), nutso uber-yuppie Patrick Bateman and his ghoulish Ivy League peers are corporate vice presidents with impressive titles but no apparent power or, in fact, real duties. Bateman becomes a serial killer who avenges his professional slights, however trivial or imagined. One of his presumed rivals gets iced because Bateman's jealous that the guy has a fancier business card than he does.

I think Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote the book, may be on to something here. Maybe we can use this against Al Qaeda, if they've really got a similar layer of seemingly expendable deputies. What would it take to blanket the Middle East with business cards? A quick trip to Kinko's and an unarmed Predator drone, and we could have Pa't Riq al-Bat Ma'an doing half our dirty work for us.