You have commented 338 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Terror Networks
U.S. has decimated al Qaeda chiefs but must persist in fight:Panetta
2012-11-22
[Shabelle] U.S. forces have decimated al Qaeda's leadership and made gains against some of its affiliates, but the fight has shifted in new directions that will require persistent U.S. efforts to truly end the threat, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993....
said on Tuesday.

Panetta, in a speech to the Center for a New American Security, said while the United States had achieved progress against al Qaeda affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, associated groups had made inroads in Mali and Nigeria and were trying to gain a foothold in Libya.

He said the United States had "decimated core al Qaeda," killing leaders like the late Osama bin Laden
... who walked in the Valley of the Shadow of Death and didn't make it out...
, Sheikh Saeed al-Masri and Abu Yahya al-Libi. It also has made strides against affiliated groups like al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen and al-Shabaab
... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban...
in Somalia, he said.

"These gains are real, but it is important to point out that even with these gains, the threat from al Qaeda has not been eliminated," he said. "We have slowed the primary cancer, but we know that the cancer has metastasized to other parts of the global body."

As a result of U.S. pressure, Panetta said, al Qaeda has become even more "widely distributed, loosely knit and geographically dispersed."

"The fight against al Qaeda has taken a new direction -- one that demands that we be especially adaptable and resilient as we continue the fight," he said.

Panetta said disrupting and ultimately defeating al Qaeda would remain a key priority even as U.S. forces draw down in Afghanistan over the next two years and renew their focus on the Asia-Pacific region as part of a new military strategy.

He said the key to achieving "the end of al Qaeda" was to finish the job in Afghanistan in a way that ensured the group could never again establish safe havens there.

Panetta said dealing with government corruption in Afghanistan and eliminating beturbanned goon safe havens in Pakistain were crucial to Afghan stability.

"It will require continued commitment by the international community and the United States to help Afghan forces achieve it," he said, adding, "We have come too far and invested too much blood and treasure" not to finish the job.

He said the United States also would have to keep the pressure on al Qaeda in Pakistain, Yemen and Somalia. It would also have to work to prevent the emergence of al Qaeda safe havens elsewhere in the world, using U.S. special operations forces in partnership with local forces, he said.

"To truly end the threat from al Qaeda, military force aimed at killing our enemy alone will never be enough," Panetta added. "The United States must stay involved and invested through diplomacy, development, education and trade in those regions of the world where violent extremism has flourished."

He said that included Afghanistan and Pakistain as well as countries in the Middle East and Africa.
Posted by:Fred

#2  Big deal. People seem to think that 'decimate' meeans to do serious damage. It really means to kill one in ten. Ten percent casualties in 11 years is no big deal.
Posted by: Rambler In Virginia   2012-11-22 16:14  

#1  I really wish Pinata would just STFU and open his mouth only to tell the truth about Benghazi. But pigs will fly first.
Posted by: USN,Ret.   2012-11-22 13:07  

00:00