Friday, July 2, 2010

Al Qaeda

Dear Friends,

The following quote from an article in The New York Times by David Sanger and Mark Mazzetti published online on June 30, 2010 entitled "New Estimate of Strength of Al Qaeda is Offered" (here) speaks for itself.
Michael E. Leiter, one of the country’s top counterterrorism officials, said Wednesday that American intelligence officials now estimated that there were somewhat “more than 300” Qaeda leaders and fighters hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a rare public assessment of the strength of the terrorist group that is the central target of President Obama’s war strategy. Taken together with the recent estimate by the C.I.A. director, Leon E. Panetta, that there are about 50 to 100 Qaeda operatives now in Afghanistan, American intelligence agencies believe that there are most likely fewer than 500 members of the group in a region where the United States has poured nearly 100,000 troops.
It was Al Qaeda that attacked us.  It is suppose to be Al Qaeda that we are fighting, but all we hear about now is the Taliban.  We need to bring our troops home now and stop fighting a war we should not be in that is making more enemies for us.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

1 comment:

  1. I'm in agreement.
    A good friend who works in Kabul several times a year tho feels her
    Afghan friends are nervous about our potential withdrawal.
    I go back and forth on this.

    ReplyDelete