AL-Qaeda Lost the Battle Long Ago

 This article sums up the current influence or lack there of, that Al-Qaeda has on the international community. Yes, they had their part in the tragedy that is 9/11, but their main focus was not in fact to hurt the Americans in New York. Their main focus was to show their immense ontent for the American presence in the Middle East in areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Many people around the world believe that it is a terrorism is habored on the idea that people are unhappy with their regimes, but how could you say that in the instance of 9/11 specifically. They chose to attack America as a way to show how much they detested America being so entrenched in their land,  not because they want democracy. There are plenty of people in the Middle Easy that want democracy, and show their desire through protests such as the Arab Spring, not in terror attacks. When looking at Al-Qaeda, the first focus was to the roll back of U.S. influence, and on the most radical spectrum, to recreate a global caliphate.


     There are not many groups that agree with the latter part of Al-Qaeda's arguement, many Muslim factions from the conservative Wahabbis in Saudi, to the radical Marxists in Palestine, have actually embraced the  idea of nation states and the internaitonal system. The small amount of Muslims that resort to violence in order to rebuild a Shari'a based world, are shrinking in number. Although Al-Qaeda has their hands in one of the most devestating events in United States history, it seems that their influence is starting to shrink and may not be as much of a threat to the United States homeland. There will always be followers for any religiouslly, socialyl, or politicallly rebellous group, but they are not on the top of the ladder in terroism compared to years passed.