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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (941)	1/15/2003 12:26:01 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7936

The same resources, I think, could have been employed much more productively in directly targeting Al Qaida leaders, momey sources, knocking out camps from long distance, etc. Last time I checked this was pretty much what we've done. We certainly have directly targeted Al Queda leaders, caught some and killed some. We didn't get Bin Laden yet, but it isn't over. By all accounts significant progress has been made in dealing with money sources as well. Camps have been knocked out. we have spent a lot of money and will spend a lot more pacifying the country, we have incited many fundamentalist Muslims, particularly Pakistanis, to join the Al Qaida cause, our military is preoccupied wth a virtually endless task. I believe the administration made it abundantly clear at the outset that this was a long-term proposition. I've seen no credible evidence that Al Queda membership is flourishing. Killing terrorists is clearly a difficult task; the cellular organization makes it, as you say, a "virtually endless task". It has to be done, and I'm not sure what the alternative is. Overall, minimal gain as far as I can see. It is clear that we have substantially disrupted Al Queda's ability to further damage us. Not to say there isn't that possibility, but it has been significantly eroded. Overall, I'd have to give the United States a high B for its handling of the war on terrorism.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (941)	1/15/2003 2:02:12 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 7936

I don't think we have gained as much as we wanted to but I think it is wrong to say we have gained little or nothing. We killed quite a few Al-Qaida. Sure there are more recruits where they came from but there would have been "more where they came from anyway". The most fanatical might not be detered but those a touch less fanatical can see that if you push the US to far there is consequences. If we did nothing or made only minor occational pinpricks against the enemy it would make our potential enemies think that we are weak when it comes to fighting terrorism. The percieved weakness would only encourage more action against us. The destruction of the camps doesn't prevent them from training or from planning operations but it does make it less efficent. Every little bit we can degrade Al-Qaida's capabilities helps. If we didn't take out the Taliban it would be hard to target Al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan. We could hunt them down in some other places but we are doing that anyway. We are also hunting down their money and other wise doing what we can to hamper Al-Qaida around the world. Tim