What is Al-Qaeda's endgame anyway?

[danhanegan]

Like most political movements, the main purpose of Al-Qaeda is to increase the power and prestige of its leadership. The propaganda they feed the rank and file have nothing to do with the leadership’s actual goals.

[SirGalahad]

@Chihuahua

My personal theory, and I have met in the military and counterterror community who agree, is that no more than 10% of the “jihadists” in the world are actual hard-core Islamic extremists. The rest are just common criminals who joined because it was the best opportunity they had to earn fame and glory (or rather, notoriety) because they come from regions that have little opportunity to advancement in society, have utterly inverted morality, and / or have been indoctrinated by Saudi-backed madrassas. Keep in mind that most of these organizations are in fact proxies by which larger states (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan) seek to control / destabilize enemies that they cannot compete with overtly. They are, as the Soviets would say, “useful idiots.”

Further, I agree with the other posts that have been made claiming Islamic terrorists genuinely believe their cause is just. Again, we’re talking about the 10% that are genuine hard-core fanatics. As much as it makes me sick to my stomach to think this, I must accept the mountain of evidence that says it is really, really easy to convince people to do things that are objectively heinous.

@danhanegan

Like most political movements, the main purpose of Al-Qaeda is to increase the power and prestige of its leadership. The propaganda they feed the rank and file have nothing to do with the leadership’s actual goals.

These two posts sum the situation up rather well, IMO. The Nazi soldiers, some of them, may have been fighting for a racially pure Fatherland, and a couple of the high-ranking leaders may have bought into the whole Ubermensch thing, but international politics is about power and money, not Religion or Philosophy.