Just another indicator that we've gotten way inside both AQ's OODA loop and decision/propaganda cycle.
No doubt. But just as dark clouds have silver linings, this "ray of hope" has a very dark tinge.
When your enemy is conventional and highly organized, the effects are likely to be more comprehensive and sustained. When the organization is diffuse and non-hierarchical, the effects will still be substantial, but the liabilities associated with their structural "dis-organization" now become "virtues" for them. This has been seen in the Zarqawi network (which is better called the "second wave" or "second generation" of al Qaeda) as partial "decapitations" occurred in 2002, 2003, and 2005, but the organization has always reconstituted. You cannot at one stroke "decapitate" an organization that is by nature decentralized. That is why the network over time will reconstitute itself. (And why this is called a "long war"). Otherwise, you could cut off the head (or heads), and eventually the body would die. Like weeds, you just have to keep coming after them long-term. The roots remain, and the heads will grow back. Short-term, the body runs around after the head is lopped off. Uncoordinated and chaotic to be sure, but when the jihadi organization you just "decapitated" was ready to fire a gun, you'd still better watch out that the dead fingers don't start squeezing off a few rounds - - all the more when what is chambered may be something you do not expect.