![]() Given the history of al Qaeda's patience and resilience, these trends can change without continued focus. ![]() With the American surge in Afghanistan, the long anticipated Pakistani military campaign in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas FATA) will add directly to al Qaida's woes. Yet the Pakistani government and people have awoken to the threat of Talebanization and al Qaeda in their midst. ![]() Al Qaeda's senior leadership no longer mentions Iraq, where local resistance with American backing has it in retreat.Īl Qaeda's focus has shifted to Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the core leadership will make its last stand. Its dream of an "Islamic State of Iraq" to serve as a platform for regional expansion was repulsed by its supposed core constituency - Sunni Arabs in the heart of the Middle East. In Iraq, which bin Laden once called the "golden and unique opportunity" to wage a central battle against the United States, al Qaeda is in retreat. President Obama has a chance to undermine the most fundamental dimension of the extremists' narrative upon which their strategy is based. The battle of ideas manifested itself vividly when bin Laden and Zawahiri each came out with statements right before the President's Cairo speech intended to taint him and his message. His very person breaks all the stereotypes of a racist and hypocritical United States Al Qaida relies upon to sell their snake oil.Īl Qaeda's statements after the President's election - calling him a "house slave" leading a "Zionist conspiracy" responsible for perceived atrocities in Gaza and Pakistan - prove it is worried. President Obama has a unique opportunity to put a dagger through the heart of al Qaeda's narrative that the West is at war with Islam, which most Muslims still believe. This crisis of legitimacy matters, leading to reduced support and funding. ![]() The slaughter of civilians again in Jakarta's hotels will not endear violent extremists in the most populous Muslim society in the world. Al Qaeda's radically exclusionary ideology and violent tactics, victimizing even Muslim civilians, have led to its rejection. Ex-jihadis in the London-based Quilliam Foundation and Muslim scholars in Singapore's Religious Rehabilitation Group have organized to counteract the ideology and activities of violent extremists. Some in the so-called jihadi community deconstruct the violent ideology and ask critically what al Qaeda's agenda has achieved. It's a realistic way of ensuring that day arrives. Imagining the end of al Qaeda is not foolhardy. We must now hasten al Qaeda's demise while containing the post-al Qaida terrorist threat and the violent ideology that it spawned. This is precisely why we should not let partisan debates about investigating post-9/11 policies inadvertently distract us from seizing a strategic opportunity: al Qaeda is on the ropes, and we must do everything we can to hasten its demise.Īl Qaeda is in decline because its senior leadership is being methodically destroyed, its primary safe haven is being undermined, its strategy is failing, and its ideology is being rejected within Muslim communities around the world. With bombings in Iraq and Jakarta and the ongoing challenges from militants and terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, there is no doubt terrorism remains a serious global threat, even where counterterrorism efforts have been successful overall. Juan Zarate is a CBS News consultant and former Deputy National Security Adviser for Combating Terrorism.
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