[HipShot]

"Very good point. It's even possible that some of the recruited fighters were not totally honest with AQ in volunteering to come over here for Jihad, and in fact only wanted to get here and disappear into a better life. Maybe."

Offset that with local recruiting.

"Exactly! They have a choice, go for the high body count and propaganda values to "show" the world and yada yada yada. OR Go for the kill shot and that means maybe foregoing civilian casualties in favor of primarily infrastructure and economic shots. Power grid. Petroleum. Financial. Food Distribution. Transportation."

Both together wouldn't be enough to bring us to our knees, militarily anyway. The bullets still exist. They are either exaggerating, or they have a big brother or two in the wings. Our allies would have to be hit hard at the same time. Nato countries, too. Our most faithful allies are the Australians. They may have their own fight with Indonesia while all this is going on.

Just rambling.

[ExSoldier]

Both together wouldn't be enough to bring us to our knees, militarily anyway. The bullets still exist.

Actually, they don't. The war has greatly depleted O/H supplies and we may be forced to contract for ammo and munitions using overseas sources. Couple that with the fact that our logistical "tail" is way bigger than our capacity to bite. For every trigger puller in the field there's a group of folks responsible for making sure he has communications, ability to move (either across the street or across the globe) and able to eat and stay healthy. Paralyze the tail and the teeth can't bite.

That's why it's always preferable to wound the enemy than kill him (so goes the reasoning behind adopting the 5.56mm over the far more efficient 7.62x51) so as to force that group to work and overwork until the system folds and they stop. Why do you think we put so much effort into cutting the "Ho Chi Minh Trail?" Cut the supply lines, you stop the troops.