There's an idea, trade Hawaii for Afghanistan.
No way I'm wearing my grass skirt in Kabul in December. Lousy surf there, too.
Al Qaeda can try to put a brave face on it, but their principal strategic aim, that of energizing the world of Islam into jihad, has failed. And it turned out not to be a snake they prodded into striking, but a tiger.
They should have picked their enemies with a little better eye toward military success and a little less theological theory. Clearly they have demonstrated that European governments based on social democratic models are, in fact, amenable to manipulation by violence, and that many that have built comfortable enclaves under the protection of foreign military power (i.e. the U.S.'s) now are unwilling or unable to exert themselves to retaliation. It is difficult to overemphasize what a dangerous bit of knowledge that is.
But an objective assessment of damage taken versus ground gained will show anyone but a desperate believer that they lost this one. Their biggest loss was formal state support in Afghanistan. That they are now fallen from training armies to taping drugged-up kids' feet to accelerator pedals is a fairly accurate representation of what a premature declaration of war cost them.