This seems rather inefficient:
A key tenet of this policy, as Obama has reiterated frequently, is to â??disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda.â?The U.S. has committed nearly 100,000 troops to the mission in Afghanistan. ABC This Week host Jake Tapper asked CIA Director Leon Panetta how big is the al Qaeda threat that the soldiers are combating:
TAPPER: How many Al Qaeda, do you think, are in Afghanistan?PANETTA: I think the estimate on the number of Al Qaeda is actually relatively small. I think at most, weâ??re looking at 50 to 100, maybe less. Itâ??s in that vicinity. Thereâ??s no question that the main location of Al Qaeda is in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The 100,000 U.S. forces that have been tasked to dismantle the 100 or so al Qaeda members â?? a ratio of 1000:1 â?? is complicated by the fact that we are also engaged in operations going after the Taliban leadership.
If you broaden the definition of who constitutes a threat to the U.S. to include the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban, I think that ratio looks a lot less absurd. But it still doesn't change the fact that the locus of the terrorist threat to the United States is in Pakistan. And all we're doing in Afghanistan is abetting a massive theft of American (and international) taxpayer dollars.
