re: #236 Kenneth

We didn’t go into Afghanistan to wipe out the Taliban, & it should not be our goal or a measure of success. We did go there to destroy Al Qaeda, and we should not stop until we achieve that. As for fixing Afghanistans miriad social problems, political corruption, tribalism, backwardness, lack of economic development… well those are all nice things, but we can’t do any of it until we provide security, and that means destroying Al Qaeda and knocking back the Taliban.

Missions change as the battlefield develops. You know that. There IS no security w/o taking these thugs out. But I do have a question - are we even sure Al Queda is still in Afghanistan in any significant measure and not moved to Pakistan? And quite frankly, I am at a loss to figure out how to recognize ‘success’ in this theater. Failure, however, I completely get.