Word: al-qaeda
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...speech that allegedly put the military at odds, publicly, with President Obama. Actually, the controversy was all about a comment McChrystal made during the question-and-answer session, when he said a switch from counterinsurgency to a counterterrorism strategy, in which American troops are withdrawn and the war against al-Qaeda is fought mostly with drones and special forces, would be "shortsighted." A week later, the President said essentially the same thing at a meeting of congressional leaders. And while it could be argued that McChrystal overstepped by dissing one possible course of action in the midst of a presidential...
...Johnny" Apple is dead, and so are nearly 900 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan - 239 of them this year alone. And most Americans have run out of patience with the war, modestly begun eight years ago to overthrow the Taliban regime that had harbored Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda before 9/11. That goal seemed to have been achieved seven years and 11 months ago, when the Taliban were driven from Kabul. But the U.S. and its allies have waged an inconclusive war against the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies ever since. President Barack Obama is being asked...
...August, President Obama laid out the rationale for stepping up the fight in Afghanistan: If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people. Obamas Af-Pak plan is, in essence, a countersanctuary strategy that denies safe havens to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, with the overriding goal of making America and its allies safer. Under Obama, the Pentagon has already sent a surge of 21,000 troops...
...This is a sound policy. If U.S. forces were not in Afghanistan, the Taliban, with its al-Qaeda allies in tow, would seize control of the country's south and east and might even take it over entirely. A senior Afghan politician told me that the Taliban would be in Kabul within 24 hours without the presence of international forces. This is not because the Taliban is so strong; generous estimates suggest it numbers no more than 20,000 fighters. It is because the Afghan government and the 90,000-man Afghan army are still so weak...
Hawks on Afghan policy - those who favor defeating al-Qaeda through a full-blown counterinsurgency strategy involving up to 40,000 more U.S. troops - have divined a politically clever line of argument...