That's not elaboration. You asserted that before we dealt with Iraq we should have dealt completely with Afghanistan. With which assets and how would you have used them? You couldn't have put the 3rd ID or the 4th into Afghanistan- no land corridor. That means either light forces or lightly armored. This is what I mean by elaborate. What would you have suggested we do to finish the job in Afghanistan?
At any rate, the war in Iraq has lasted over ten years- don't forget, the war didn't stop in the middle of all that time just because the media said it did. It was time to end that state of affairs. That's exactly what we are in the process of doing.
We will not win this war in the hills of Afghanistan.
Rather, the decisive battles will be in Pakistan's Northwestern Frontier. The Musharraf Government hangs by a thread; that is why what we do there has been very secret, at least for the time being. Once we do go in there, it will be against the will of the Pakistani Government, unless we can convince the Pakis that it is in their interest to clean up the Tribal Areas of Al Qaeda.
Be Seeing You,
Chris