My brain is hanging upside down

Rolling Stone assembled a panel of experts to talk about what is coming in Iraq. It's distressing reading to say the least. There is no good news or optimism anywhere in this piece. One that chilled me most came from Al Qaeda expert Michael Scheuer. He had this to say:

No matter what happens now, the Islamists will have beaten both of the superpowers -- first the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and now the United States in the heart of Islam. The impact of that in Islamic civilization is going to be enormous. We have made bin Laden a prophet: His organizing concept for Al Qaeda was "The Russians are a lot tougher than the Americans. If we can beat the Russians, then we can eventually beat the Americans." Even more important, Al Qaeda will have contiguous territory on the Arab peninsula to attack from.