Does anyone believe we have the capability to eliminate or defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan/Pakistan? [View All]

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I don't believe so, and I don't think the military or the WH believes that either.

There's been all sorts of talk from the new administration about 'scaling-back' our military goals in Afghanistan.

That would make sense, because there's little chance that the paltry NATO force will succeed in anything more than further aggravating and encouraging even more individuals to align with whatever resistance group offers them sanctuary from the military advance on their land.

A lot of the justifications used for continuing and escalating the militarism in Afghanistan insist that our forces should be 'fighting al-Qaeda' and killing or capturing the fugitive 9-11 suspects. But, it's just not credible to insist that all of those killed are al-Qaeda or responsible in some way for the 9-11 attacks.

The military almost always insists that the individuals they're targeting and killing in Afghanistan are al-Qaeda, until it's proved otherwise - and they've been proven false over and over, sometimes to a tragic degree with entire groups identified as civilian and unrelated to al-Qaeda or any other enemy of the U.S. or the Afghan state.

As far as I'm concerned, the military has no credibility at all in their directing of the force of our own nation's defenders. I wonder how anyone looking on with any attentiveness can reasonably expect that these blunt, marauding forces will eliminate al-Qaeda at a greater rate than our military forces' presence and actions are serving to increase the terrorists' ranks with resisters who opportunistically or necessarily identify their own cause against the U.S. occupation and aggression with our 7-year old nemesis.