The End of the Jihadist Dream
 

TO the Qaeda members I interrogated at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere in the aftermath of 9/11, Osama bin Laden was never just the founder and leader of the group, but also an idea. He embodied the belief that their version of Islam was correct, that terrorism was the right weapon, and that they would ultimately be victorious. Bin Laden’s death did not kill that idea, but did deal it a mortal blow.

The immediate reaction of Al Qaeda members to Bin Laden’s death will be to celebrate his martyrdom. The group’s ideology champions death for the cause: Songs are composed, videos made and training camps named in honor of dead fighters. Bin Laden’s deputies will try to energize people by turning him into a Che Guevara-like figure for Al Qaeda — a more effective propaganda tool dead than alive.

But it won’t take long for Al Qaeda to begin wishing that Bin Laden wasn’t dead. He not only was the embodiment of Al Qaeda’s ideology, but also was central to the group’s fund-raising and recruiting successes. Without him, Al Qaeda will find itself short on cash — and members.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/op...%2Findex.jsonp

Note: May 2. 2011

I guess we can always hope that like the successors to so many dead tyrants, they take to fighting and squabbling among themselves for the glory of the throne and diminish their energies in the process. :yep:

I think they've morphed, so spread out with different leaders and goals. Many of their sects seem to be more interested in fighting where they're.

I miss the good old days, when they ran around killing each other.

Yes,:yep:

Sounds like wishful thinking. It doesn't take a large and well funded terrorist group to pull off an attack. Islamic extremism wasn't born with bin Laden and I dare say it won't die with him either.

Certainly, but this is a strong signal to all terrorist groups that we will not move us to that kind of action that has taken place

Agree to that.

As long as there is Islam and west there will be conflict between the two.
The ideology is open to that.
Lets just hope there will be less of cheer leading and hopefully more open opposition from religious leaders.
As for now most of them ignore jihad or actively or quietly encourage it because it fits the ideology better and as mean of control.

Again just wishful thinking.

They were never as one anyway, many groups either chose to be or found themselves listed as al-Qaeda and never had anything to do with the group. All the minor groups under the big bad umbrella! Everything that happened since 9/11 has knee-jerked toward al-Qaeda to make out that it's a huge multi-national congolmerate of terror. Yes, there was some inter-mingling and funding/training/provisions with some groups but not all.

Now, for the short-term, there will be more groups coming under this umbrella through choice and the west will see a huge* backlash in the coming months.

One old man may have been the poster boy but unfortunately there are many who will continue his ideal.

Just my opinion gained from many years ago, I have no proof I can show you.

* By huge I do not mean on the scale of 9/11, but many smaller events on lesser-fortified military/government installations.

Visions Must always be included in the image, whether it for the moment think it is nonsense, but it is not, as long as you act so you can cope with most things

It has been many years since AQ has been a centralized organization. The snake has many heads.

Tend to agree...

My heart hopes the Times' writer is right, but my head suspects he's wrong.

25 million $ reward for info ?

Actually $35 Million The 25 million was just from the FBI.