Opportunity or threat: two questions about AQ
Clints Watts (SWC CWOT) presents two very different questions, which IMHO appear inter-related: Would Jihad's new generation kill off AQ's global leader Ayman al-Zawahari and is this when AQ will strike hard?
Link and well worth reading it all:http://www.fpri.org/geopoliticus/201...an-al-zawahiri
His FPRI article ends:
Quote:
As a concluding note, I would also put forth that today, more than any time in the past couple years, I believe the West is vulnerable for an al-Qaeda Central directed plot. Al-Qaeda:
- Needs a spectacular attack to reassert its global authority as top dog
- Could benefit from how an attack would divert attention from its killing of dissenters (ISIS)
- Might like to distinguish its targeting focus on the far enemy as opposed to sectarian issues; and
- The U.S. hasn’t been this distracted (due to Snowden, Russia-Ukraine, Iran, Syria, etc.) with regards to counterterrorism since 9/11.
Since AQ's No.2 leader is the AQAP leader Nasir Wuhayshi, it makes this weekend's action in Yemen rather interesting. Details on the Yemen thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=12784&page=5
