Afganistan "trap" for US by Al-Qaeda?

[Ferdinand Foch]

My history teacher sent us this link this afternoon. Not really sure about it, though personally I think its kinda biased.

Al-Ahram Weekly | Opinion | Al-Qaeda reconsidered

 

[FLYBOYJ]

What the author of that article misses is that the Soviet Union intended to invade and occupy Afghanistan or at least make sure a puppet government was there. There would have always been Soviet troops there. For us its the total opposite. Despite all the conspiracy theories about oil pipelines and surrounding Iran, we will eventually leave the armpit.

 

[vikingBerserker]

It seems to me the only thing Al Qaeda has been able to achieve are suicide/car bombings, and even that is backfiring by turning people away from them.

 

[timshatz]

Different wars by different countries with different goals. In other words, Apples and Oranges.

Al-Quida is the goal of the US, Taliban is more incidental. If the US could split the Taliban from Al-Quida, they would.

That being said, nobody has had much luck in A-stan in 2500 years. The place is a tribal mess. Article seems to say AQ is responsible for that and it is all part of their grand strategy. Yeah, and I'm responsible for the sun rising every day. AQ is just playing the field on this one.

If I were betting on the US or AQ coming out of this ahead, I'd bet on the US. If I were betting on the Taliban or the US coming out ahead, I'd go 50/50 at best with an edge to the Taliban.

Sooner or later, the locals will figure out the sooner we get rid of the Arabs (as they look at AQ), the sooner we get rid of the other foriegners running around the place. That spells very bad news for AQ.

 

[stasoid]

The Soviets at least managed to biuld Afgan army of some 350 thousands men, low motivated, poorly trained but they did the job - after the soviet withdrawal, the puppet regime remained in power for another 3 years defending itself from mujahideen attaks.
If we pull us troops out of Afganistan today, Karzai government wont last for 24 hours.