snorf says, "obahama: RECONSTITUTING OUR ENEMIES"
Between this comment and the anti-American protests in Pakistan, here's some thoughts:
Seems we clearly want out of AfPak and Iraq. What's significant is suddenly there is little or no opposition to our doing so.
Al Qaeda's strategy had been to engage us in many theaters and economically destroy us, bringing us down like they think they brought down the USSR.
Perhaps they (al Qaeda, whom is the entity running the AfPak theater, from the enemy side) can't take the heat anymore. Instead of engaging us in many theaters they just want us out of their face.
That's a major change in strategy.
Why?
I propose that the Arab Springs have opened up so many opportunities that al Qaeda's spread too thin and they need to focus on these opportunities and others in motion.
Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood could be considered competitors with the same goal. Now all these "Spring" countries are up for grabs and the US keeps smacking them on the head, diverting their attention from expansion.
See, too, p. 192, Shazad, last paragraph in the section, re: new alQ targets:
"In the meantime, [al Qaeda] was working on its other project -- to reestablish geographical connections with the Arab world, Turkey, and the Central Asian republics in order to build more fortresses for new theaters of war. All roads went through Iran..."
In spite of the huge numbers they mustered in Pakistan and their acceptance of the ideology of global jihad, the AfPaki jihadists are locally-oriented. So AlQ Central needs to free themselves up and focus on jihad in the Muslim World, not against the world of the Western infidel.
That's my current thinking.
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