Would Al Qaeda be of minimal concern if our military hadn't been sidetracked into Iraq?

Question

Did we overextend our military?

Shouldn't we have completely saturated Afghanistan with U.S. soldiers and utterly 'shock and awed' Al Qaeda?

Instead we are conducting a two front war and struggling at both!

Answer 1

Al Qaeda would be of minimal concern if they didn't blow innocent people up.

Answer 2

No.

Al Qaeda as a military target had become a minimal concern before the Iraq War started. As a decentralized terror organization, though, it remains a serious concern, and would have remained so regardless of military actions taken or not take against elements of it.

Committing the resources that were used in Iraq to Afghanistan instead /might/ have stabilized that country (or might have led to a backlash and insurgency, for that matter), but they could not have done much to Al Qaeda, which had retreated into Pakistan at that point. Invading Pakistan - a nuclear-armed, nominal ally - would obviously have been even more impolitic than invading Iraq.

Answer 3

Our military is massively over-extended. That's obvious from the fact that people are being sent over without proper medical attention, without the leave and rest times between overseas deployments that are customary, and because termination dates on enlistment contracts are being ignored by the government ("stop loss") so people who enlist aren't allowed to leave.

But yes, had the US actually focused on the terrorists in Afghanistan, rather than nation building in Iraq, the situation in the middle east would be very different.

Answer 4

Yes yes and yes. Not only was the military overextending, it was done in a very disorganized way which increased the U.S. troop casualties.

Answer 5

That is really being suckered in. Al Qaeda sends a few crazies to Iraq to keep all our resources there and then stakes out the rest of the world to do as they please. STUPID AMERICANS.

Answer 6

yes.we should have came down on tora bora and the taliban like a sledge hammer with an over powering show of force to prove to the rest of the world who the most powerful nation in the world is but unfortunately bush let bin laden go chosing rather to go to war in iraq without finishing the job in afghanistan.we have shown the rest of the world our military is weak by letting common thugs go toe to toe with us for 5 years and now countries like north korea and iran both of whom have real armies no longer fear us.i believe if we had gone in to tora bora full throttle al queda wouldnt exist anymore.thanks bush!!

Answer 7

I agree

Answer 8

without question