Updated: [Last night I put down my initial thougthts and today I’m expanding a few sentences with some analysis.]
I’ve said for a long time that AQ and the Taliban pretend to be world Islamists looking for Kalipha as a recruiting tool, but that they are really collective gangs of regional thugs set on temporal power and protection racketeering. Their goal is (and was always) power within the Islamic world, and with their new manifesto they accept defeat from the west and have decided to turn inward.