In the last year, many, if not most, of the foreign Islamic terrorists in Pakistan have left. There were several reasons for this, and the death of Osama bin Laden last was not a major one. The Arab Spring has encouraged many foreign terrorists to return home, where rebellion has taken the heat off Islamic radicals, or even made religious radicals part of new governments. But many of the foreign terrorists were encouraged to depart because of several years of increasingly effective American UAV missile attacks.
This is good for us, I think. First, it gets rid of a lot of the foreign jihadis in Afghanistan-Pakistan. Since these guys have a lot of the technical expertise, this should reduce the effectiveness of the jihadis we and our Afghan allies face. This is obviously important as we seek to turn over combat duties to Afghans and come home.
Less obviously, it helps us in the general war on terror by sending jihadis back to their home countries. Remember that a lot of our Arab friends looked the other way as jihadis went to Iraq to fight us. Our Arab friends could look supportive of a Sunni cause (fighting America in Iraq)--deflecting unwanted jihadi attention--while enjoying the benefit of having those jihadis out of their home country--and most likely for good at the hands of American, Coalition, or Iraqi forces on the battlefield. That easy option for dealing with their home-grown jihadis is greatly reduced.
Now the jihadis will go home where they will compel our Arab friends (and even foes) to kill and arrest the jihadis out of self defense. And since the jihadis are going to their home countries, it is like a frontal assault on a wide front that allows the defenders to kill a manageable number of attackers in their sector. If jihadis picked one country and went to it, that would be more of a problem for us. But they aren't. They may have short-term opportunities (including not being killed by an American UAV), but in the long run spreading the jihadis out commits government to killing their own jihadis. Which is good for us.
