quote:
The attacks were attributed to Al Qaeda, however, and the Taliban hosted the Al Qaeda leadership. With the intelligence that we had at that time, we simply couldn't have sent James Bond or Maxwell Smart around the world to pick off individual targets. We had an enemy that had identified itself and that had taken claim to an act of terror, and we had terrorists who came from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan was a known training center for terrorists and we had to appease the victims families by doing something! What else could we have done?
—Phat
You could have applied more intelligence and less emotion/gung-ho-ism.
You could have learnt the lesson the Soviets learned about fighting in that terrain (namely: don't - even if you've
not got a population who, tiring of the bodybags, can demand an end to things).
You could have delayed gratification.
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From an outsiders perspective I stand amazed at the child-like shock expressed after 9/11. America has been pushing it's weight around, around the world, for decades .. then someone manages to step inside your defences and gives you a bloody nose.
I don't imagine those who planned 9/11 omitted to take account of your knee-jerk response in their forecast.
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