Osama's 20 year plan

There's an interesting item at the World Tribune (a media outlet whose reliability I'm still trying to determine) that describes a series of Pentagon briefings entitled "The Long War".

The Pentagon’s Joint Staff is very secretive but it is coming out of the shadows to better promote the idea that the global war on terrorism will be a "Long War" of perhaps 100 years’ duration.

This doesn't come as earth-shaking news to those of us who've been following the fight against Islamist extremism, but the end of the article discusses a startling (if a bit ambitious) al Qaeda long-range plan:

The briefing discloses a 20-year Al Qaida plan to create an Islamist extremist homeland in the Middle East. The seven-stage plan began with the September 11 attacks as "The Awakening,” “Eye-Opening,” in 2003 when U.S. troops took Baghdad. The plan will continue with the “Arising and Standing Up” in 2007 with a new focus on Syria and Turkey, and also more direct confrontations with Israel to try to gain more credibility among Muslims.

By 2010, Al Qaida plans on the “Demise of Arab governments.” All this will culminate in an Islamic caliphate in 2013, when Al Qaida and Islamists gain powerful new allies such as China, and Europe declines into disunity.

The “Total Confrontation” period will commence from 2015 to 2020 with the creation of an Islamic Army that will begin a worldwide fight against believers and nonbelievers.

The "Definitive Victory" will be reached in 2020 when the Islamists will assume power globally.

There's little doubt in my mind that this is exactly what groups like al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut Tahrir and others would like. But I think even they would admit it's ambitious. We'll be keeping our eyes on Turkey and Syria in the coming year just the same.

A side note here about World Tribune...they appear to be a half-credible source. For instance, they were out in front on the 'WMD buried in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley' story, which while never disproved, also never had much evidence to back it up. On the other hand, a quick glance at their headlines shows many stories known to be factually confirmed. While this particular story of AQ's 20 year plan sounds perfectly credible, I'll still take it with a grain of salt. A large grain of Mediterranean sea salt.