extremists the way it was when al qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks in the kandahar area, conducted the initial training for the attackers in training camps in afghanistan before they moved on to germany and then to u.s. flight schools. the fact is that it was the taliban that allowed al qaeda to establish its bases and sanctuaries in afghanistan when it controlled a good bit of the country. that gives big pause, needless to say. that is why, again, this insurgency has to be combatted. general petraeus saying the point of fighting the taliban, the point of shoring up the afghan government so that what happened before 9/11 does not happen in afghanistan again. what happened before 9/11 in afghanistan is osama bin laden had protection from the taliban. he was able to set up his training camps there where al qaeda trained for and planned the 9/11 attacks. general petraeus arguing that we have to fight the taliban so bin laden can t set up those camps again. that explanation of why we re fi
argued about why we are still fighting in afghanistan. almost ten years after we invaded president obama has consistently said very narrowly and insistently that it is about al qaeda. about the people who attacked us on 9/11 and not letting them do it again. i set a goal that was narrowly defined as disrupting, dismantling and defeating al qaeda and its extremist allies. our overarching goal remains the same, to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan. how does it make sure that al qaeda and its extremist allies cannot attack the united states homeland, our allies our troops based in europe, that s the question that i m constantly asking because that s the primary threat that i went there to deal with. our core goal the folks who killed 3,000 americans during 9/11 and who are still plotting
frankly consistent with what president obama has always said about it. no matter what anybody else has argued about why we are still fighting in afghanistan. almost ten years after we inindividualed president obama has pretty consistently said very narrowly and very insistently that it is about al qaeda, that it is about getting the people who attacked us on 9/11, narrowly speaking and not letting them to do it again. i set a goal that was narrowly defined as disrupting, dismantling and defeating al qaeda and its extremist allies. our overarching goal remains the same, to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan. how does this advance america s national security interests? how does it make sure that al qaeda and its extremist allies cannot attack the united states homeland, our allies, our troops who are based in europe? that s the question that i m constantly asking because that s the primary threat that we went were there to deal with.
how we responded to 9/11? just how much we redirected our resources into security and spying in the wars. there are two parts to this. one is the actual budgetary cost. these are enormous. part of the budgetary costs are the up front costs. the soldiers, the troops, equipment, the munitions. but there s another part that was really highlighted by that clip you showed. it will cost us almost a trillion dollars to pay for the health care costs and disablity payments of those coming back from iraq and afghanistan that are disabled. it s an amazing number. those are the budgetary costs. money that could have been spent by the government for strengthening our education, investing in technology. technology that would have been produced goods that really strengthened our competitiveness. the other part is the impact on our economy.
for the attackers in training camps in afghanistan before they moved on to germany and then to u.s. flight schools. the fact is that it was the taliban that allowed al qaeda to establish its bases and sanctuaries in afghanistan when it controlled a good bit of the country. that gives big pause, needless to say. that is why, again, this insurgency has to be combatted. general petraeus saying the point of fighting the taliban, shoring up the afghan government is that what happened before 9/11 does not happen in afghanistan again. what happened before 9/11 in afghanistan is osama bin laden had protection from the taliban. he was able to set up his training camp there where al qaeda trained for and planned the 9/11 attacks. general petraeus arguing that we have to fight the taliban so bin laden can t set up those camps again. that explanation of why we re fighting the afghanistan war is frankly consistent with what president obama has always said about it. no matter what anybody else has