I would say that making sure that we stay the power base in Middle East/Gulf region is the primary long term goal.The original intention of capturing Bin Laden or at least taking out his safe haven was a wise idea to have gotten involved in Iraq was very a bad idea and placed Afghanistan on the back burner.Now we have killed Bin Laden and it is very clear that Al-Qaeda has become very de-centralized there seems to be little point in staying in Afghanistan where our "allies" grow weary of our presence with each day.
Some may argue that there have been no terror attacks in the US since 9/11 but their goal with those attacks was to draw us into a protracted conflict.Al-Qaedas goal was to start a world wide Islamic Jihad with the hopes that the United Sates being the dominate world and economic power would wear itself down over the long term these people where thinking long term not in 5 year term nor ten or 20 year terms they are in it for long haul.
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