Assessing Al-Qaeda (merged thread)

[davidbfpo]

Bill,

Thanks for the link. I still consider his reported statement is "spin"; a distraction from the Gatwick incident - where incidentally the police have reported doubts there ever was a drone! There is nothing new in what he reportedly said.

[Bill Moore]

Bill,

Thanks for the link. I still consider his reported statement is "spin"; a distraction from the Gatwick incident - where incidentally the police have reported doubts there ever was a drone! There is nothing new in what he reportedly said.

David,

I agree with the spin, but at the same time I do think we'll see the emergence of al-Qaeda 3.0 and although ISIS core has been psychologically and physically dislocated, malignant ISIS cancerous cells have metastasized to a number of countries. The threat of Islamist terrorism is far from over, and it will evolve and of course we need to co-evolve so we can continue to disrupt their large scale attacks. I don't think there is any way to decisively defeat this threat and call it a day. Instead we will have to continue counterterrorism operations indefinitely to maintain enough pressure on these groups and individuals to keep them off balance enough to prevent another 9/11 scale attack. At the same time, we have to shift a great deal of effort to great power competition and prepare for a large scale war with peer competitors with the aim of preventing war, but winning it if necessary. Where we need to go in the near future is clearer now, but how we will navigate there remains unclear to me for now.

[davidbfpo]

Jason Burke, a UK journalist whose focus is often AQ and jihadists, has a short column and asks:

how is it that a group that commanded such extraordinary, unprecedented attention across the world from 2001 to 2011 can disappear from public attention so completely?

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...-might-be-plan