Word: qaeda
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Debating Afghanistan Re Joe Klein's "The Mystery of the Surge" [Nov. 23]: President Obama stated unequivocally that victory over the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is essential to U.S. national security. If this is true, why agonize over the corruption of Hamid Karzai's regime or the ability to effectively train the Afghan police and military? We must defend our national-security interests, whatever it takes. And if it takes more troops, so be it. On the other hand, if the mission is judged impossible, Obama has a sacred responsibility to get the troops out of that...
...when the U.S. looked almost invincible, the Iranians appeared willing to concede a lot simply to forestall a U.S. attack. Now, with the U.S. mired in Afghanistan and Iraq, they are less afraid and thus less willing to deal. Similarly, the Taliban have little incentive to break with al-Qaeda so long as they feel they're gaining momentum in the Afghan war. It will be hard for Obama to win at the negotiating table what he can't win on the battlefield. After all, despite Nixon's intricate diplomacy with Moscow and Beijing, neither communist superpower helped him where...
...Taliban's local roots, Obama officials suggest, also make it harder to vanquish than al-Qaeda. The implication is that as with Hizballah and Hamas, the U.S.'s only realistic goal is to bring the Taliban into the political process. Despite his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, Obama has abandoned the goal of making the country Taliban-free. For all the attention it has received, the decision about troop levels is essentially tactical: it's an effort to win the military leverage necessary to persuade elements of the Taliban that they're better off in government...
...security experts what violent extremist group costs them the most sleep at night and the answer might very well be al-Shabab. Though not as far-reaching or well-known as al-Qaeda, the Somalia-based al-Shabab is particularly troubling to American officials due to its active recruitment of U.S. citizens - particularly from the large Somali community in and around Minneapolis - to join its battle against Mogadishu's weak interim government. In October 2008, the first known American suicide bomber - a 26-year-old Somali-American fighting with al-Shabab - blew himself up in northern Somalia...
...Pakistan as well as recruits from other African nations. The official head of al-Shabab is Sheik Mohamed Mukhtar Abdirahman, known as Abu Zubeyr, though several senior officials are believed to guide the group, which is divided into three regional units. Al-Shabab has claimed an affiliation with al-Qaeda since 2007, and its leaders are believed to have received training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. In February 2008, al-Shabab was added to the U.S. government's list of foreign terrorist groups. (Read "The Fort Hood Killer: Terrified ... or Terrorist...