Feb 06 2009
George Bush Left Pakistan/Afghanistan Very Winnable
There are indications that President Bush not only left Iraq a success Obama simply needs to finalize safely, but he also left al Qaeda – hold up in Pakistan hiding – on the brink of destruction as well:
After one of the latest U.S. Predator attacks in North Waziristan, a Taliban subcommander visited the site. He’s seen the results of many airstrikes over the past year or two, but this one really impressed him. The missile didn’t just hit the right house; it scored a direct hit on the very room where Mustafa al-Misri (“Mustafa the Egyptian”) and several other Qaeda operatives were holed up.Â
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After years in which they were suspected of shielding Osama bin Laden’s lieutenants—or, at least, not pursuing them very vigorously—Pakistan’s intelligence services have finally started helping the Americans track and kill the fugitive terrorists in the frontier belt. According to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, 11 of the top 20 “high-value targets” along the Afghan border have been eliminated in the past six months. And while the Americans blast the bad guys in the tribal areas, the Pakistanis have been confronting problems in their own ranks. Since September, 140 pro-Islamist officers have been mustered out of ISI, according to a senior diplomatic official in Washington, asking not to be named on such a sensitive topic.
A U.S. counter-terrorism official goes so far as to suggest that the CIA-directed strikes have been so successful that it was possible to foresee a “complete al Qaeda defeat†in the mountainous region , according to this report in America’s National Public Radio.
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“In the past, you could take out the No. 3 al-Qaeda leader, and No. 4 just moved up to take his place,â€Â NPR quoted a U.S. official as saying. “Well, if you take out No. 3, No. 4 and then 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, it suddenly becomes a lot more difficult to revive the leadership cadre.â€
President Obama really shouldn’t have too much trouble “ending the war” since in Iraq it is over and we have the enemy pinned down and are picking him off in Pakistan’s tribal region. Â He should not have trouble – unless he blows it.
Oh, but don’t overlook his desire to do just that. (blow it) He wants very much to look good to the kooks of the world. I think he’s only looking for the way to blame it on Bush.
This war is far from being over. President Obama has very much the probability of blowing it. We need to see how well diplomacy will work….
A big problem is that time is NOT on our side.
Well, now he’s gone from wanting to free the “innocent” terrorists in Gitmo to actually freeing the ones that have actually confessed to killing Americans on the Cole.
Now that has to be a ‘admirable’ move for the Libs.
I heard a letter read from a mother of a sailor killed on the Cole. She’s not happy. I’m not either.
Hill has been appointed to the Ambassadorship in Iraq. I read the reason is to work with Iran our “easy” withdraw from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Hill did such a great job in North Korea that Obama thought he could equal the job with Iran.
All well and good, but you seem to have forgotten…Hussein is rooting for the OTHER SIDE!
[…] lives. That is an unforgivable sin. Bush was serious, and he made great progress. He left us within the reach of victory – which may be rapidly slipping away from […]