“The fear is that leaving the Taliban to rule means another $100b attack like 9/11, against which a few billion a year is peanuts”
Any country in the world could have contained terrorists capable of hijacking airplanes and plowing them into buildings using box-cutters (at the time). It really was a simple terrorist act to implement. It didn’t require the taliban and afghanistan. Of course having that terrorist-friendly base helped. So we dont rebuild the nation. We just break it when it gets out of control. But more importantly we understand this is a worldwide problem and not fixate on afghanistan.
I do agree there are logistic issues to support drones. But we need that capability in many locations throuhout the world. I just think that is the future not ground troops and nation-building.
McVeigh killed a couple of hundred people with a van full of fertilizer. A couple of 18-wheelers could probably kill more people than on 9/11, when parked up against the right structure. The way I see it, the reason they haven't done this kind of attack is because they don't want to deal with the resultant retaliation. But even deterrence fades. Once the Taliban regains its perch, it may fool itself into thinking that we won't return no matter what it does to us.