Should we destroy Al Qaeda?

[JJackson]

A few days ago Phoenix80 linked to a New Yorker article a little of which is below. I suspect this is fairly typical of small groups around the world in that AQ leadership has never heard of them or funded them or received any funding from them. They are just doing their own thing with a nod to the brand name.

Abu Mohammed claimed to represent four armed groups that have joined a jihadi coalition. (There is such an alliance, called the Popular Resistance Committees.) “When I speak, I speak for all of them,” he told me. “We consider Osama bin Laden our spiritual father.” His group follows the same ideology as Al Qaeda, but there is no direct connection. “The siege around Gaza has disconnected us from the outside world,” he said. “None of us can travel.” In Gaza, he estimated, there were about four hundred armed fighters in cells like his, down from as many as fifteen hundred before the Hamas takeover. When Fatah ran the Strip, it was easier for subversives to operate, he said, but now “Hamas is in full control, and their power is very tight.” Hamas, he explained, wanted to dictate when violence occurred in Gaza, and tried to keep the Al Qaeda sympathizers penned in.

This link is to a Marc Lynch post on his FP blog and relates to the Fort Hood shootings. He is arguing that AQ would like nothing better than an over reaction that alienated the broader Muslim community as it will just provide a more fertile environment in which to operate.