In an article entitled, Accepting Al Qaeda: The Enemy of the United States' Enemy, Foreign Affairs writer Barak Mendelsohn argues that the United States must reconsider its current policy towards the terrorist organization and its leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

"The instability in the Middle East following the Arab revolutions and the meteoric rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) require that Washington rethink its policy toward al Qaeda, particularly its targeting of Zawahiri," Mendelsohn writes. "Destabilizing al Qaeda at this time may in fact work against U.S. efforts to defeat ISIS."

Mendelsohn claims that by targeting both the Islamic State and Al Qaeda for airstrikes in Syria, the United States "reinforced the jihadist narrative that Washington is hostile to Sunni Muslims and ready to bargain with the murderous Alawite regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."

"In order for U.S. President Barack Obama to fulfill his promise to 'degrade and ultimately destroy' ISIS, he must weaken ISIS' control of Mosul, Raqqa, and other large population centers, as well as stop its expansion," writes Mendelsohn. "Inadvertently, the administration's cautious approach to military intervention makes al Qaeda—which views ISIS as a renegade offshoot—an important player in curtailing ISIS' growth."