Quote Originally Posted by TROUFION View Post
Concept summarized by Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen Conway:

al Qaeda
has shifted focus. I think, in ten years, we'll discover that they
have decided that they cannot win in Iraq, but that they can
possibly be successful in Pakistan or Afghanistan. I think that's
where the preponderance of their effort is right now."
I suspect a large part of that change in focus is in effect that they are leaving the area and consolidating their forces elsewhere as sort of a passage of lines by another group of forces with which they have a tenuous understanding. They may not expect the replacements to win but even if they just continue to make things difficult it would still seem to work to AQ's advantage(at least in their perspective)

Kinda like it's becoming more about military battles than ideological ones at least in the forefront.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend
, and all that jazz.