Posted 6:22 AM by steve

Another of Bush's mistakes was going after the Taliban instead of focusing his attention on Al Qaeda. While I certainly wouldn't want to live under Taliban rule, unlike in Iraq where we felt Hussein himself was taking action detrimental to our security, the Taliban weren't out organizing attacks on the United States; our beef with them was that they were allowing Al Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan.

We didn't need to overthrow the Taliban to be able to attack Al Qaeda. We didn't need to install a new leadership in Afghanistan to be able to attack Al Qaeda. And we don't need to waste American lives policing Afghanistan to be able to attack Al Qaeda.

We could have gone after Al Qaeda regardless of whether the Taliban liked it or not, just as we've gone after Al Qaeda in Pakistan despite the Pakistani government's dislike of our doing so. We could have used drone attacks, we could have had boots on the ground seeking out Al Qaeda training facilities and hideouts... and we could have done so without turning the Taliban into an active opponent.

And now Obama is following in Bush's footsteps by diverting attention from going after Al Qaeda to going after the Taliban.