Reply #20: We never needed any wars for that.

[ThomCat]

Who was it in the government that eventually admitted that Al Qaeda never numbered more than 100 individuals?

You don't need wars to stop 100 people. You notify all the police forces around the world, and send some appropriate bribes and bounty hunters to the places where the law enforcement isn't as reliable.

How many $millions have we spent per person so far, and how many more people have they recruited just because of the threat and chaos and damage of these wars?

Al Qaeda was an excuse. An excuse for rolling out massive political agendas here, for trying to seize control of oil and mineral rights in Afghanistan, and for massive political spending for a war Bush already wanted in Iraq. Only the propaganda has been about Al Qaeda. For Fucks Sake, how many times did we hear celebratory press conference announcements that we captured the same "#2 guy in Basra" Did he keep escaping? (For that matter, how many different times did we hear that "we just captured Basra?")