Quote Originally Posted by Bill Moore View Post
Throughout history most terrorist groups eventually perish or evolve into other groups or state like structures (e.g. Hezballah and Hamas). AQ's relevance is that they successfully started the global jihad (attacks throughout Europe, the U.S., Africa, Russia, the Middle East, etc.), and I see no sign of the movement stopping, nor do I also don't see any signs of the movement being successful. Still they are a threat, and will continue to conduct attacks resulting in mass murder of innocent civilians. How do you bring this type of activity to an end? I'm not sure, but I'm relatively confident that good governance is not the complete answer. European governments were fairly decent, yet they still experienced terrorist attacks resulting the death of innocent civilians due to some left wing radical ideology. There will always be wackos in our mists.

For the immediate future I agree with Dave (and the UK knows this from first hand experience), AQ remains a dangerous organization despite its setbacks. Using our metrics we believe AQ is trending downwards, perhaps this is true, but always the skeptic I wonder if AQ has simply adapted its strategy, and we have not caught on yet? Only time will tell.
Bill,

If Al Qaeda somehow eventually ceases to exist as a core functioning terrorist organization, who do you see taking it's place at the forefront of the global jihadist movement? Also whoever takes Al Qaeda's place in this position be the same or even more dangerous then AQ, could it be even be a state supported organization etc? I know again I'm casting a wide net here but in my opinion, such an organization would come out of Pakistan, or more in Central Asia it's self.