Posted on 03/28/2015 10:13:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Almost overnight, the Islamic State sent its enemies reeling—and turned U.S. policy in the Middle East upside down.
As troubling as the Islamic State’s successes are for U.S. officials, there is one person for whom they are even more troubling: Ayman al-Zawahiri. Although the Al-Qaeda leader might be expected to rejoice at the emergence of a strong jihadist group that delights in beheading Americans (among other horrors), in reality the Islamic State’s rise risks Al-Qaeda’s demise.
When Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi rejected Al-Qaeda’s authority and later declared a caliphate, he split the fractious jihadist movement. The two are now competing for more than the leadership of the jihadist movement: They are competing for its soul.
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Who will emerge triumphant is not clear. But the implications of one side’s victory or of continuing division are profound for the Middle East and for the United States, shaping the likely targets of the jihadist movement, its ability to achieve its goals and the overall stability of the Middle East. The United States can exploit this split, both to decrease the threat and to weaken the movement as a whole.
The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda fundamentally differ on whom they see as their main enemy, which strategies and tactics to use in attacking that enemy and which social issues and other concerns to emphasize.
Although the ultimate goal of Al-Qaeda is to overthrow the corrupt “apostate” regimes in the Middle East and replace them with “true” Islamic governments, Al-Qaeda’s primary enemy is the United States, which it sees as the root cause of the Middle East’s problems.
The logic behind this “far enemy” strategy is based on the idea that U.S. military and economic support for corrupt dictators in the Middle East—such as the leaders
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Evil vs Evil... whats not to like..
Hopefully it will be a long drawn out and denigrating conflict for both of them.
Otherwise one or the other will come out on top — stronger than before.
Debilitating
Not denigrating
IMHO, ISIS is just not as refined as Al-Qaeda.
AQ will just fly planes into buildings...ISIS just takes a knife and cuts your head off.
Islam just has different mobs engaged in a mob war..
It’s just western countrys do the same thing differently..
Socialists, Fascists, Communists, Dictators, Marxists, Maoists, Democratic demogogues(parliaments).. Oligarchs, Kingdoms.. ETC..
Mob Rule by Mobsters.. truly Democrats..
ALL claiming to be “PROGRESSIVE”.. but are regressive..
....so I’m supposed to be relieved that al Queda doesn’t like ISIS??????
To paraphrase the PM of Israel: the enemy of our enemy is (still) our enemy.
This is a really long interesting article. By all means read the whole thing. Also several links there of interest.
“AQ will just fly planes into buildings...ISIS just takes a knife and cuts your head off.”
You have captured the essence, Berdie. AQ is a centrally controlled linkage of radicals and looks to execute large, complex attacks against Western powers they see as interfering and defiling Islam in the Middle East.
ISIS is a loosely networked collaboration of Islamists which seeks to recreate the Caliphate as it was in 700 AD and start Armageddon now. Its tactics are focused on convincing individuals to act locally and on their own initiative, with conversion to violence and training over the Internet.
https://www.coursera.org/course/understandingterror
Perhaps, but Obama's quest will be to broker an alliance between them.
Thanks, but no thanks.
They both want worldwide implementation of Sharia Law. Perhaps it is an argument over method.
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