Posted on 04/05/2011 9:56:01 PM PDT by Steelfish
Al Qaeda Makes Afghan Comeback
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG And JULIAN E. BARNES ASSOCIATED PRESS
In late September, U.S. fighter jets streaked over the cedar-studded slopes of Korengal, the so-called Valley of Death, to strike a target that hadn't been seen for years in Afghanistan: an al Qaeda training camp.
Among the dozens of Arabs killed that day, the U.S.-led coalition said, were two senior al Qaeda members, one Saudi and the other Kuwaiti. Another casualty of the bombing, according to Saudi media and jihadi websites, was one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted militants. The men had come to Afghanistan to impart their skills to a new generation of Afghan and foreign fighters.
Even though the strike was successful, the very fact that it had to be carried out represents a troubling shift in the war. Nine years after a U.S.-led invasion routed almost all of al Qaeda's surviving militants in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden's network is gradually returning.
Over the past six to eight months, al Qaeda has begun setting up training camps, hideouts and operations bases in the remote mountains along Afghanistan's northeastern border with Pakistan, some U.S., Afghan and Taliban officials say. The stepped-up infiltration followed a U.S. pullback from large swatches of the region starting 18 months ago. The areas were deemed strategically irrelevant and left to Afghanistan's uneven security forces, and in some parts, abandoned entirely.
American commanders have argued that the U.S. military presence in the remote valleys was the main reason why locals joined the Taliban. Once American soldiers left, they predicted, the Taliban would go, too. Instead, the Taliban have stayed put, a senior U.S. military officer said, and "al Qaeda is coming back."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Stop picking on 0bama. It was that pastor in Florida who did it!
If we leave them alone for a while and they set up training camps then we have a good target. Kind of like chumming for sharks.
>>American commanders have argued that the U.S. military presence in the remote valleys was the main reason why locals joined the Taliban. Once American soldiers left, they predicted, the Taliban would go, too. <<
Whoever made this assessment is an idiot. With “commanders” such as these, we’re just p#$$ing into the wind.
We’re there so contractors can make billions and to protect the Afghan narco economy.
obama is an ally of al qaeda... he is one with them.
LLS
Pull out... nuke the entire region... leave nothing left standing or alive.
LLS
Our war in Afghanistan is a total waste of time.
We need to withdraw from Afghanistan, maintain bases in Kabul and critical cities and simply make life unbearable for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
This can be done by money and material delivered to our Afghan allies. It worked for the Soviets. We don’t need to waste so much blood and treasure on a non-strategic country.
In doing so we are dependent on the absurdly corrupt Pakistanis; we are at the mercy of our enemies.
I think in many ways these wars Obama is pplaying with PLAYING with has to suggest only one thing, he does NOT want to see Islam lose, especially since( mounting evidence) he sent that video to the Ivory Coast not even saying a danged thing about the 1,000 Christians murdered( whabi $$) or the Copts murdered in Egypt or his extremely weird Kinetic Humanitarian action" whatever the hell that means. He's a demon, pure demon. God bles our soldiers, now sodomizers can share ...forget it.
I pray there can be change in the coming election, pray nothing seriously extreme of biblical proportions happen and hope someone can reverse this guys BS and kick his scrawny arse back to where ever he came from.
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