- There are so many things wrong with Obama's "New
and Improved" Afghanistan War that it's hard to know where to begin,
but I guess the place to start is with his premise.
-
- If America needs to be fighting in Afghanistan because
Al Qaeda planned and launched the 9-11 attacks from there back in 2001,
as the president claimed in his lackluster address to the cadets at West
Point last week, then we would have to assume either that Al Qaeda is still
there, or that if we were not there fighting, that Al Qaeda would be back
to plan more attacks.
-
- Well, we know Al Qaeda is not there, because US intelligence
reports that there are "fewer than 100" Al Qaeda operatives in
Afghanistan at most at this point, and probably a good deal fewer. Maybe
even zero. Al Qaeda has long since moved on to Pakistan and thence to other
countries far removed from Afghanistan (even Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
after speculating that Osama bin Laden "might be" hopping back
and forth across the border with Pakistan like a kid doing a double-dare
game, concedes that in truth no one in the US has any idea where bin Laden
is, or whether he is even in South Asia). But would Al Qaeda come back
if the Taliban, ousted back in 2001 by US Special Forces, were to return
to power in Kabul? Not likely.
-
-
- As the New York Times reported in last Sunday's paper,
the Afghan Taliban have convincingly broken with Al Qaeda, because of the
latter organization's targeting of the Pakistani government, which has
long had a supportive relationship with the Afghan Taliban. Besides, the
Taliban in Afghanistan have a clear goal of ruling Afghanistan, and the
US has already demonstrated both that it can live and work with a Taliban
government, as it was doing before the 9-11 attacks, and that it will punish
the Taliban if they allow Al Qaeda a free hand inside their country. So
the odds of a re-established Taliban regime in Afghanistan inviting Al
Qaeda to move back in and set up shop are somewhere around zero.
-
- Ergo, whatever he may say, the current Christmas ramp-up
in the war announced by Obama has nothing to do with 9-11, nothing to do
with combating terrorism, and nothing to do with protecting American security...
-
- For the rest of this story, please go to:
- http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
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