Jihadist Groups Gain In Power And Influence Throughout The Middle East

An Islamist fighter roamed through Aleppo, Syria, last December. Infighting among jihadist groups has recently mitigated their threat there, but that may not last. Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

Jihadist Groups Gain in Turmoil Across Middle East -- New York Times

WASHINGTON — Intensifying sectarian and clan violence has presented new opportunities for jihadist groups across the Middle East and raised concerns among American intelligence and counterterrorism officials that militants aligned with Al Qaeda could establish a base in Syria capable of threatening Israel and Europe.

The new signs of an energized but fragmented jihadist threat, stretching from Mali and Libya in the west to Yemen in the east, have complicated the narrative of a weakened Al Qaeda that President Obama offered in May in a landmark speech heralding the end of the war on terrorism. The leaders of the Senate and House intelligence committees, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Representative Mike Rogers of Michigan, raised warnings in an interview on CNN on Sunday when they said that Americans were “not safer” from terrorist attacks than they were in 2011.

Read more ....

My Comment: With no coherent policy or strategy to confront the growth and expansion of Jihadist movements .... I do not see any possibility that they can be stopped. If anything .... the West is relying more on a strategy of hope .... hope that these radical groups will be defeated by our allies in the Middle East, even though they receive very little if any support from us while these Jihadist groups appear to receive enormous support and resources from their allies in the Persian Gulf, Pakistan's tribal areas, and elsewhere.