Al-Qaeda’s War on America Just Entered Its Third Decade

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 Al-Qaeda’s War on America Just Entered Its Third Decade
An AV-8B Harrier II with 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), launches from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) Aug. 1, 2016.

    By Dominic Tierney The Atlantic Read bio

August 23, 2016
 

Two decades ago, Osama bin Laden officially launched al-Qaeda’s struggle against the United States. Neither side has won.

Exactly two decades ago, on August 23, 1996, Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States. At the time, few people paid much attention. But it was the start of what’s now the Twenty Years’ War between the United States and al-Qaeda—a conflict that both sides have ultimately lost.

During the 1980s, bin Laden fought alongside the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. After the Soviets withdrew, he went home to Saudi Arabia, then moved to Sudan before being expelled and returning to Afghanistan in 1996 to live under Taliban protection. Within a few months of his arrival, he issued a 30-page fatwa, “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places,” which was published in a London-based newspaper, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, and faxed to supporters around the world. It was bin Laden’s first public call for a global jihad against the United States. In a rambling text, bin Laden opined on Islamic history, celebrated recent attacks against U.S. forces in Lebanon and Somalia, and recounted a multitude of grievances against the United States, Israel, and their allies. “The people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the Jewish-Christian alliance and their collaborators,” he wrote.

http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/08/al-qaedas-war-america-just-entered-its-third-decade/130976/?oref=d-skybox

[rangerrebew]

Nearly 15 years and $70 billion later, US troops still endlessly fighting Taliban

Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland said mission would be 'temporary,' but would not say how long it would last, citing 'security reasons'
By Nadia Prupis -
August 23, 2016
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Afghanistan
U.S. soldiers near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, a few months after President Obama formally declared the war in Afghanistan over. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense/cc)

More than a hundred U.S. troops were sent to Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan on Monday to continue fighting the Taliban, in the first deployment of forces to the area since the drawdown in 2014—offering another signal that the U.S. military presence there is expanding, not decreasing, as President Barack Obama has promised.

The Guardian reports:

    Since late July, the Taliban have seized new territory across Helmand, defying a series of about 30 U.S. airstrikes, and raising concern of an attack on the capital. The militants have also stepped up attacks in the country’s north, closing in on Kunduz, which they briefly captured last year.

https://www.intellihub.com/nearly-15-years-and-70-billion-later-us-troops-still-endlessly-fighting-taliban/

[Fishrrman]

Al-Qaeda’s War on America Just Entered Its Third Decade...

And once again, the question:
Who's winning?