Is Al-Qaeda Defeated?

CNN national-security analyst Peter Bergen

Is Al-Qaeda Defeated? -- Clifford D. May, NRO

Its ideology is not — and ideology matters.

At the Aspen Security Forum this past summer, Peter Bergen, CNN’s intrepid national-security analyst and a director at the New America Foundation, gave a talk titled: “Time to Declare Victory: Al Qaeda Is Defeated.”

Since then, AQ and/or its affiliates have launched lethal attacks on American diplomatic compounds in Libya and Yemen, hoisted an al-Qaeda flag above the U.S. embassy in Cairo, resurged in Iraq, and put boots on the ground in Syria. They have bombed Christian churches in Nigeria and the mosques of Sufi Muslims in Mali. They have battled African Union troops in Somalia. Within the last week, Taliban terrorists shot Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old Pakistani, for the “crime” of advocating education for girls, and bombed the office of moderate tribal elders in northwest Pakistan, killing at least 17 people.

Read more ....

My Comment: I have been saying the same thing for years .... ideology maters. In Al Qaeda's case .... defining, confronting, and defeating Islamic extremism is a must. As to how this will be done .... my hopes rest on having more people like this one in speaking out, than any policy, speech, or action from the U.S. government.