Pirate's Cove

This is very interesting. When President Bush 43 was prosecuting the war against al Qaeda, we were told that we just needed to kill Osama and the whole thing would fall apart. This was known as the “Queen Bee” theory. When Osama was whacked under Barack Obama, we were told that AQ was dead. In fact, AQ was significantly reduced already due to killing lots of AQ members and making it hard to operate. Osama wasn’t really in control at the time, it was Ayman al-Zawahiri (Osama needed to die, though, with prejudice). But, jihadis were still out there. But, now that the ISIS/ISIL leader was forced to blow himself up, something has changed, as the AP tells us

Islamic State still poses a threat after al-Baghdadi’s death

Eliminating the Islamic State group’s elusive leader gives President Donald Trump a new argument for leaving Syria, but the U.S. military campaign against the extremists is far from finished.

The killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by U.S. forces leaves the Islamic State without an obvious leader, a major setback for an organization that in March was forced by American troops and Kurdish forces out of the last portion of its self-declared “caliphate,” which once spanned a swath of Iraq and Syria.

But the militant group, which arose from the remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq after that group’s defeat by U.S.-led forces in 2008, has ambitions to regenerate again. And it remains a dangerous threat in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

“The bottom line is: This puts the enemy on its heels, but the ideology — and this sounds so cliched — it is not dead,” said Chris Costa, a former senior director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council in the Trump administration.

Key to the Islamic States is its “kill where you are” ethos, encouraging a far-flung network of followers, including those in the United States, to commit violence however and wherever they can. That jihadist message is likely to live on, even with the death of al-Baghdadi.

This is all very interesting. We were told that they were the JV by Obama, and their atrocities were minimized by the media while Obama was in office. Not too mention that the danger from Islamic terrorism was minimized. Heck, this is the type of article that would have CAIR and other useful idiots screeching about Islamophobia, is it not?

According to defense officials in Iraq and Afghanistan who study Islamic State and have watched its movements, the group is growing in power and numbers outside of Syria.

Its flagship affiliate is known as ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, and it is expanding into other countries, including Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Many of those affiliates have liaisons in the terror group’s hub in eastern Afghanistan.

Radical Islam is constantly growing. It’s being taught in Islamic schools and mosques, on the Internet, through radicalization programs spread from those to get people to join. It’s often subtle prodding and pushing and cajoling. Along with those raised to radicalism in beliefs, with some steps to becoming a jihadi.

Funny how they like to tell us this stuff after ISIS’ leader blows himself up when cornered while a Republican is in office, eh? Oh, and we’re also getting this again

I like how, now that it's Trump in office rather than Obama, we're back to the "if we kill Islamic terrorists we'll just make them mad and embolden them" talking point #alBaghdadi https://t.co/pUqHfw6csP

— William Teach2 ??????? #refuseresist (@WTeach2) October 27, 2019