Quote:
Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
Ironic to think that Osama has done exactly what he set out to do with 9/11, brought the US to its knees financially, 4 trillion so far on the war on terror and nothing to show for it other than a dead Osama.
|
I believe that Bin Laden was a failure as a military commander but a bit of a visionary in terms of strategy. He predicted that he could severely hurt the American's economically by drawing them into the middle east and bleeding them.
In terms of that he accomplished his mission.
In terms of the cost to Bin Laden beyond his death. He actually saw his senior leadership ravaged, Al Qaeda reduced to a near non entity in terms of global operations. He saw his idea of a ideal Muslim Government in Afghanistan knocked over, he saw another in Iraq (not really Muslim) destroyed, he lost his funding, saw family members killed.
While Al Qaeda was on the rise prior to 9/11 its pretty much shattered now, and we haven't seen the rise of another organization to take its place.
The key next target is really the Taliban in Pakistan, the Canadians did a great job of reducing the Taliban to a shadow of itself in at least its area of Afghanistan, and the Taliban made the massive mistake of messing around too hard in Pakistan and took a beating from the Pakistan military.
We are now seeing the rise of the fanatical individual or berzerker instead of the organized and well funded terrorist groups.