WASHINGTON (AP) – The Bush administration is attempting to re-energize its terrorism-fighting war efforts in Afghanistan, the original target of a post-Sept. 11 offensive. The U.S. also is refocusing on Pakistan, where a regenerating al-Qaida is posing fresh threats.

There is growing recognition the United States risks further setbacks, if not deepening conflict or even defeat, in Afghanistan, and that success in that country hinges on stopping Pakistan from descending into disorder.

Privately, some senior U.S. military commanders say Pakistan’s tribal areas are at the center of the fight against Islamic extremism; more so than Iraq, or even Afghanistan. These areas border on eastern Afghanistan and provide haven for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters to regroup, rearm and reorganize.

This view may explain, at least in part, the administration’s increasingly public expressions of concern.

At a Pentagon news conference last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that while the U.S. respects the Pakistani government’s right to decide what actions are needed to defeat extremists on its soil, there are reasons to worry that al-Qaida poses more than an internal threat to Pakistan.

Full Story Here:
US Shift Seen to Pakistan, Afghanistan

I am going to say this one more time, IF we had a President that had a lick of sense, Iraq would never have happened, we’d have stayed the course where the course actually was, Afghanistan, and by now, if the war had been conducted as it should have been, it would be all but over by now…

We had al-Qaeda, or the Taliban, which ever name you find most appropriate, we had them on the run in Afghanistan, we had them all but destroyed and what do you suppose happens next?? We up and all but abandon our efforts in Afghanistan so we can go play in Saddams sandpile because he threatened Bush 41 and made fun of him for not winning in ‘91…

We were quite successful in ‘91, by OUR standards of PC warfighting, but by our enemies standards, we didn’t accomplish too much because Bush 41 called it off and didn’t let Swartzkopf take it to a decisive resolution while we had the forces in place to do so and had world opinion in our favor…

When we went into Afghanistan post 9-11 we had the forces to do the job and we had world opinion in OUR favor, and another PC President named Bush blew it, there seems to be a strain of no warfighting ability in that family, at least I see a trend in that direction…

I am pretty sure that now we have Iraq fairly well under control, a task that only took 5 years, almost 4,000 American lives and God only knows how many BILLIONS of our tax dollars, all to bring a nation the size of Texas under control, I’m pretty sure we’re going to go back, in force, to Afghanistan and try a ‘do over’, we might as well, Bush has another year left in office and there’s war profits to be made, and a legacy to be sought and what the hell, Americans still have a few bucks to spare, Bush hasn’t bankrupted us yet…

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