Seizing On Obama's Plan To Withdraw From Afghanistan, Has Al Qaeda Already Started Building NewTraining Camps?

People have asked me many times why I support the War in Afghanistan and why I am against the withdrawal of U.S. troops from there. Well, this story from The Telegraph pretty much sums it up.

Our mission initially in Afghanistan was very clear - it was NOT about nation-building, it wasn't about taking over the country of Afghanistan. It was and still is clear - it was to capture Osama bin Laden and take out the Taliban who had allowed bin Laden to operate in that country and plan the 9/11 terror attacks. It was determined by the U.S. and NATO and many other coalition countries that a Taliban-led Afghanistan would continue to foster al Qaeda and other terror groups and lead to more and more destruction across this world.

Well, along the way, America and the coalition fell prey to civilian and media pressures to fight this war like a bunch of schoolgirls playing hopscotch and instead of dealing a death knell to the Taliban in Afghanistan, this war has prolonged.

But back to my point of all of this - if we withdraw from Afghanistan then that means that the Taliban will be back in power in less than a year. It's as simple as that. And we will be back at square zero with hundreds of al Qaeda training camps across Afghanistan - and the next 9/11 will be plotted unheeded.

The article points out that al Qaeda is more than likely ALREADY building camps in certain areas that we have withdrawn from - are you going to try and tell me that won't multiply by ten when we are gone?

I understand the desires to leave Afghanistan and I especially agree with those that say if we aren't going to fight there to win, then get out...but I go back once again to the consequences...are you 100% comfortable with the Taliban back in power and al Qaeda flourishing there? Will you REALLY sleep at night confident that the next 9/11 won't be just around the corner?

Al-Qaeda 'setting up training centres in Afghanistan'


There are growing fears that despite the addition of 30,000 US troops last year, the terror organisation has exploited vacuums in Kunar and Nuristan created by the decision to pull US troops back to more populated areas in both Afghan provinces and concentrate firepower in the south.

With President Barack Obama determined to begin sending American soldiers home in July, some in the US military are concerned al-Qaeda is making a comeback, nearly a decade after it was driven into Pakistan's neighbouring tribal areas by the US invasion.

A Taliban commander told the Wall Street Journal that "in these bases fighters from around the world are training" to be "suicide bombers, guerrillas and experts" in improvised explosive devices.

The training centres are so far however considered too small and too temporary to act as launch pads for attacks on the West in the manner Osama bin Laden used them for preparing the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

But al-Qaeda activity in the country's northeast has picked up considerably in the past six to eight months, particularly in the Korengal Valley in Kunar, which US forces abandoned in the summer of 2009.

According to research by the Long War Journal, a blog from the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, the terror group has a presence in eight of Kunar's 15 districts.

Last autumn two al-Qaeda camps were struck by US jets, killing dozens of foreign fighters, including a number of al-Qaeda figures. Another raid in December captured Abu Ikhlas al-Masri, described as a leading al-Qaeda operative.

Last week, six US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division and an Afghan soldier were killed and at least 15 others wounded in an ambush by Taliban fighters in Kunar close to the border with Afghanistan.