My guess? Stop wasting resources in Iraq that could be used along the porous Pak/Afgh border. Not make random enemies out of the entire world so we will have more people in the region willing to help us.
Also, honestly..AQ in any country is about as much of a threat to this country as lightning. It ludicrious to spend so much time worrying about it, unless your a republican with nothing better to talk about because tax breaks for the rich don’t make very good soundbytes. Flying a few planes into a few buildings is the worst, absolute worst, they could do. 3000 dead americans is like a bad week on americas highways. AQ have no access, nor technological facilities or abilities to create or even to maintain smallpox or nuclear devices, the only two things that could cause this country serious problems. Athrax is laughably difficult if not impossible to disperse widely. Its not contagious in humans. Dirty bombs are logisitcally unfeasible devices as any nuclear expert will attest to. Suitcase nukes are a coldwar myth, and even if they actually existed, anything involving nuclear devices required constant maintence, upkeep and repair, by highly educated scientists with access to state of the art, immobile equipment.
All this stuff are things which no stateless organization will ever have. Also, for what its worth, I would contend that the only people who would ever release the smallpox virus were those seeking to whipe out humanity, because anyone with the technological knowhow to create or even store smallpox knows it would spread throughout the entire world into todays globalized society. I’m sure there are many bad things one can say about AQ, but I do not beleive they are seeking the death of every human being on this planet, even if they had the ability to do so, which they dont and never will.

Yeah! And we could retrofit our rigs so the tailpipe feeds into the air conditioner…so many efficiencies, Badger!

By the way, where is Osama?

The question should not be WHERE is Osama Bin Laden but Whom.

There have been several Predator strikes in Yemen. It is also much harder to hide in Yemen than it is in Waziristan.

Would they hurry to cover the mayhem and violence that resulted from our leaving or would they ignore it like the current mayhem and violence with us there?
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I honestly don’t think our leaving will result in mayhem and violence. We aren’t doing anything to stop Iraqis from killing each other now. If we see a group of Iraqis attack another group of Iraqis, we don’t jump in on either side. It is a 6 way civil war that we are not taking part in. However, we are arming, training, and funding the Badr Corps, and providing a lot of funding to the Iraqi Islamic Party, both of which hate each other. So there is the possibility that after we leave, there will be less sectarian violence. And most of AQI will be killed off (either by Fadhilla, the Mahdi Army, or Badr Corps), or they will be driven back to Saudi. The only reason the Iraqis are even tolerating the Saudis and the Syrians in their country is because they are fighting against us. But I digress, this thread is about Afghanistan/Pakistan.

How do you intend to “find them and bring them to justice”? They aren’t going to surrender. And we are not “blindly bombing the crap” out of Pakistan.

Chris L Says:
Well, I think a good first step would be to re-open Shahbaz Air Base in Jacobabad, Pakistan. It was closed in 2004. This would give us a good base of operations to work from. Secondly, we need to seriously start pulling from Iraq to focus on Afghanistan. We have no clear enemy in Iraq, we are simply regulating a civil war between various factions, all of which oppose us. Without our resources being seriously tied up in Iraq, we would actually be able to fight Al-Qaeda.

This sounds very reasonable. I was wondering the other day when that rarest of creatures, a story about Iraq, crossed my TV screen, would the MSM remain as disinterested in Iraq as it is now after we pulled out? Would they hurry to cover the mayhem and violence that resulted from our leaving or would they ignore it like the current mayhem and violence with us there? It will make a big political difference to whoever is the next President.

The report finds that Al Qaeda is now able to attack the United States and represents the “most serious” threat to this country. The United States has not met its national security goals to destroy the terrorist threat and close the safe haven in Pakistan…
No comprehensive plan for meeting U.S. national security goals in the FATA has been developed, as stipulated by the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism (2003), called for by an independent commission (2004), and mandated by congressional legislation (2007). Furthermore, Congress created the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in 2004 specifically to develop comprehensive plans to combat terrorism.

Bush says we are combatting terrorists, but the GAO says we have No comprehensive plan in place for meeting this national security goal. I’m impressed the Government Accountability Office: 1. Named the document appropriately 2. Did the report in the first place 3. Actually admitted the US has not met it’s National Security Goals 4. Admitted Al Qaeda is able to be a “most serious” threat 5. That there isn’t a plan in place to meet this goal.

We found an office that Bush doesn’t completely control. WOW
After all the money we have invested in this war; it is no surprise that there isn’t any game plan whatsoever. That would require someone with experience and intellegence. That leaves out Georgie & co out. He is only good at being a cowboy, taking vacations and pretending to have been a fighter pilot.

Well of course not. Why would they actually engage the known enemy of the mythical “war on terror”?
Wouldn’t it be easier just to overtake a middle eastern country, wholly unprepared for an assault? With oil, to boot.
Why, why, I ask of thee, why do the 28%ers still support this administration?
Exley?

Just out of curiosity, what is the Progressive solution to AQ in Pakistan? Currently we use sporadic predator strikes and I suspect some very small SF ops. Would an increase in military activity make you happy? Bear in mind, Musharef has no control whatsoever over Waziristan, his army has gotten trashed several times trying to tame it….what should we do about this situation?

Stop sending our money to Musharef (BILLIONS & BILLIONS). Leave Iraq NOW, redeploy in border region and kill OBL. Once done, come home. NEXT!

what should we do about this situation?
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Well, I think a good first step would be to re-open Shahbaz Air Base in Jacobabad, Pakistan. It was closed in 2004. This would give us a good base of operations to work from. Secondly, we need to seriously start pulling from Iraq to focus on Afghanistan. We have no clear enemy in Iraq, we are simply regulating a civil war between various factions, all of which oppose us. Without our resources being seriously tied up in Iraq, we would actually be able to fight Al-Qaeda.

That’s a start.

The progress solution AQ in Pakistan? How about figuring out who the heck AQ in Pakistan are? How about then finding them and bringing them to justice instead of blindly bombing the crap out of a sovereign country? These are just the ideas off the top of my head.

WTF? You have to be kidding us.

Bush has no plan?