One year after bin Laden

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

Mike Hayden knows a thing or two about terrorists. From 2006 to 2009, he ran the Central Intelligence Agency.

Last year, the Marine Corps University asked Gen. Hayden to keynote a conference on the state of al Qaeda. "Al Qaeda main is like IBM Solutions," he said. "They're now a consulting service. What they give to the franchises are the name, legitimacy, some financing, some expert advice." Their slogan, he suggested, should now be: "We don't do the terror, we make terror better."

Hayden and others at the conference had no way of knowing that, just two weeks later, Osama bin Laden would be dead.

Materials found in bin Laden's compound suggest Hayden's assessment was right on the mark. By the time of his death, the "mastermind" behind the 9/11 attacks was reduced mostly to cutting public relations videos, cheerleading for the global Islamist insurgency and blue-skying plots without a clue as to their practicality.

As we approach the anniversary of bin Laden's last breath, it's worth asking: What next from al Qaeda? The proceedings from last year's Marine Corps University conference, just published as "Al-Qaida: After Ten Years of War," is a good place to start looking for the answer.

"According to Bin Laden, the United States is clearly the key because, with its defeat, resistance to achieving Al-Qaida's objectives will collapse," writes Norman Cigar, the university's director of regional studies.

So, the United States remains target No. 1. But, having been pummeled for taking America head-on, al Qaeda has shifted to an indirect approach - doing what it can to fan the flames of insurgency on many battlefields. With this strategy, the key issue is deciding where to engage.