Reply #5: As an alternative to full-scale invasions, which are demonstrably unhelpful,

[Flatulo]

attack drones make sense to me. Hell, Clinton tried to take out bin Laden with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are a much blunter scalpel than a Hellfire missile.

If you agree with the premise that there are some potentially deadly enemies out there in the Afghan/Pakistani frontier, and further agree that it would be folly to send in a ground invasion force, there are limited options to elimintating these enemies.

If you don't agree that there are enemies who want to kill Americans in great numbers, then please move on.

The target does need to be selected based on solid, up to date intelligence. I remember in the early days of the Afghan conflict, warlords were ratting each other out to have the US vaporize their rivals.

And the Taliban does bear some culpability for the unfortunate civilian casualties by moving into villagers' homes and mosques.