re: #261 Big Beautiful Door

And we are still fighting in Afghanistan. However, I feel pretty certain that even if Al Gore or any other plausible person had been President in 2001 besides George Bush, we would’ve assisted the rebels in removing the Taliban who were harboring Al Qaeda.

If Gore had been President, he might have taken out Bin Laden ahead of time; Bill Clinton did warn Bush. But more to the point, I firmly believe that diplomacy would have worked; the Taliban were then well on the way to re-entering the regional community and could have been negotiated into giving him up. But of course that would not have been as emotionally satisfying as launching missiles … so you may be right.

About the length and failure of the war, however, I was absolutely correct.