LONDON — U.S. President Barack Obama seems to be working under a serious misapprehension. Releasing the White House's annual strategic review to the public on Dec. 16, he declared that U.S. policy in Afghanistan was "on track" to defeat al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Who told him that the United States is fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan?
"It was Afghanistan where al-Qaida plotted the 9/11 attacks that murdered 3,000 innocent people," he said, which is an accurate historical statement.
"It is the tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border from which terrorists have launched more attacks against our homeland and our allies," Obama continued. Note the leap of logic: Suddenly, he's no longer talking about Afghanistan, but about the "Afghan-Pakistan border." In fact, he's really only talking about the Pakistani side of that frontier, which American forces could not control even if they killed every insurgent in Afghanistan.