Al Qaeda affiliates made gains in Syria and Iraq in recent months . Peter Bergen says al Qaeda appears to control more territory in Arab world than ever before . He says the focus of al Qaeda leaders has always been regime change in Middle East . TL;DR Al Qaeda 's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri acknowledged as much in his 2001 autobiography , `` Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet , '' when he explained that the most important strategic goal of al Qaeda was to seize control of a state , or part of a state , somewhere in the Muslim world , explaining that , `` without achieving this goal our actions will mean nothing . '' The U.S. military is preparing for a possible attack on Syria, but it will not be launched without approval from Congress, President Obama said Thursday. There is push back against al Qaeda from Maliki regime in Iraq and from Syrians .
Al Qaeda affiliates made gains in Syria and Iraq in recent months . Peter Bergen says al Qaeda appears to control more territory in Arab world than ever before . He says the focus of al Qaeda leaders has always been regime change in Middle East . TL;DR The U.S. military is preparing for a possible attack on Syria, but it will not be launched without approval from Congress, President Obama said Thursday. There is push back against al Qaeda from Maliki regime in Iraq and from Syrians .