It’s always a shame to see old friends and allies have a falling out, but we may have found the exception to the rule. As the hopes of ISIS to establish their sprawling caliphate continue to slip away, some of their pals seem to be abandoning them. Al Qaeda is now putting the word out that would-be terrorists in and around Afghanistan (and the rest of the world) should reject the new kids on the terror block and go back to supporting the traditional sort of terrorism that their parents enjoyed with the Taliban. (The Daily Caller)

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri called upon jihadists across the globe to reject the Islamic State and instead support the Afghan Taliban in a video released Sunday.

Zawahiri said that ISIS and its so-called caliph leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi look to “split the ranks of the mujahideen,” a term used to describe jihadists. He encouraged the Islamic community to “rally around the emirate,” a reference to the Afghan Taliban, which refers to itself formally as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The video address, titled “Be Not Divided Among Yourselves,” is the second in a series by Zawahiri called “Brief Messages to a Victorious Ummah,” the Arabic term for the global Muslim community. The first video attacked the Muslim Brotherhood, referring to them as “chickens.”

So Zawahiri isn’t just going after ISIS here… he’s pretty much trying to take out all of the competition. And calling the Muslim Brotherhood a bunch of “chickens” is something new. Apparently they’ve been watching Back to the Future over at al Qaeda HQ and figure they can goad their rivals into making a mistake, much like Marty McFly. But is the competition in the terror recruiting market all that rough now?

That’s apparently only part of the story. It’s true that the various terror groups may be fishing from the same pool when it comes to recruits, but they have other differences as well. They can all agree that America is the Great Satan or whatever, but their long range goals and how to achieve them are in dispute. The Daily Caller report tracks some of the various back and forth which has been going on between the groups. Zawahiri has been accusing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of dividing their forces. In return, al-Baghdadi claims that Zawahiri is not following the “proper path” toward establishing a caliphate. And now Zawahiri is firing back, demanding that al-Baghdadi provide proof to back the accusation.

If I didn’t know better I’d think I was watching a series of Democratic and Republican campaign commercials.

In the end, though, how can you do anything with this other than break out the popcorn? When terrorists begin turning on each other and fighting amongst themselves, everybody wins. Now if only we could get them to start blowing each other up in large numbers we might really be on to something.