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Yes, the terror networks we're fighting sometimes fight against each other, but they also fight together at times. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. All of the various flavors got together for a meet & greet in Beirut, early 2001. Why would the Shia & Sunni all "care" about the Palis?

The fight for spoils can only happen after the larger obstacle is out of the way & that would be us. UBL is *more* than a pan-Arabist, as are the Iranian Mullahs. Establish the Caliphate & figure out who's gonna be the top dog later.

I'm sure UBL really, really didn't give a rat's behind about Nam, other than as way to study how we make war. All of our inactions & retreats were noted, specially when they were in UBL's neighborhood. 911 was a test to see if our belly was soft enough yet. What will it take to get us to abandon Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordon, Kuwait, Qatar... ?

We have to keep these threats in perspective. OBL and al Qaeda are limited to terrorism. If they assemble to become anything like an army or a government they become a target. They can only be effective if they stay in the shadows, hard to target. Their high point will have been as an adjunct to the warlords in Somalia and the Afghan Taliban.

They aren't going to seize control of a large country like Iraq, but they would be doing us a huge favor if they tried. They'd finally give us a big fat target. Or they would be targeted by any number of Iraqi factions who would see them as rivals to be eliminated. Competing for Iraq should keep the locals plenty busy for the next decade.