|
Al-Qaida Has Gotten More Powerful
by James Glaser December 3, 2009 After President Obama's speech last night, that is the only conclusion we can possibly come up with. After all, Obama's own military commander in Afghanistan, General McChrystal reports that there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida members in all of Afghanistan, and he even admits that they are not capable of launching attacks. Well. If it isn't the strength of al-Qaida that is causing us to send tens of thousands more troops into combat, what the heck is it? It really can't be the Taliban. Obama said he is sending more troops to protect America. The Taliban have no planes, and the fact that Afghanistan is a land locked country, means no navy. So these "freedom fighters" that we helped out when they we fighting the Soviets really can't be the problem either. So, that leaves those 100 al-Qaida. With over a thousand American Army and Marine Corp troops for each al-Qaida fighter in the field, we should be able to mop them up in no time. We have been at this for over eight years now, so we know the terrain, we must have people who speak the language by now, and for sure we have the superior training and equipment. That makes me ask, what is the problem? Either this little army of Osama bin Laden is super human, or we don't know what we are doing.
President Obama wants some sort of victory in Afghanistan, but that isn't going to happen. Osama bin Laden has left that country. We think he is in Pakistan, but we don't know for sure. He and his staff could be any where. They don't need Afghanistan for training purposes. There are lots of countries, and President Obama named several of them last night. Heck, there are plenty of countries that would like to poke a stick in our eye. It's not like we have been making friends around the world the last 50 years. |
BACK to the 2009 Politics Columns.