Al Qeada Not Drivers of Taliban Insurgency

Interesting bit from John McCreary's always reliable Night Watch:

"U.S. drone strikes have killed 11 of Al Qaeda's top 20 leaders across Pakistan's Federally Administrated Tribal Areas in the past six months, Asian News reported, citing a report from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The report states the ISI has started to help the U. S. effort to track and kill al Qaeda and Taliban militants as an attempt to improve Pakistan's global image. The report did not mention whether those leaders had been replaced. Al Qaida is still functioning, in that the attacks continue, so apparently they have.

The number is impressive if accurate, but that kill ratio proves that al Qaida leaders are not the key drivers in the Afghan insurgency which surged far past 2007 levels of violence during the same period."