<HTML>Ishmael,
"What would be our goal? The destruction - utter destruction - of the Taliban. The installation of the Northern Alliance. The eventual rehabilitation of Afganistan. The arrest of Bin Ladin. The massacre of his military assets. The elimination of all terroristic groups still funtioning within Afganistan.
Most or all is achievable."
Achievable how? You can't achieve these ends by proxy so you appear to be demanding an actual invasion by ground forces.
For starters lets look at the problems involved in the sizeable force required actually getting to Afghanistan, let alone being supplied and supported? The Russians, unsurprisingly given their own experiance, have said no thanks, politely but firmly. Iran, dream on. Pakistan then, through the Kyber pass and no doubt over the dead bodies of the well armed locals. China has a border too, or is it Tibet?
BTW is it possible for you to discuss this without resort to words like 'utter destruction', 'massacre' and 'elimination'. They properly belong to descriptions of what happened on September 11th, not to the response of a supposedly civilised world.
Derek</HTML>
