Either Capture or Kill Laden to Defeat Al-Qaida: McChrystal
Al-Qaida cannot be defeated until Osama bin Laden, the most wanted fugitive of the world, is either killed or captured, said top military commander of the US.
“I don’t think it would make, it would not defeat Al-Qaida to have him captured or killed, but I don’t think that we can finally defeat Al-Qaida until he is captured or killed,” General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, told Senators at the Congressional hearing on Afghanistan.
General McChrystal said before the Senate Armed Service Committee that Osama bin Laden is iconic figure at this point whose survival strengthens Al-Qaida as a franchising organization across the world.
“It does remain important to American people, indeed the people of the world, that one day, Osama Bin Laden is either captured or killed and brought to justice for his responsibility for the murder of many Americans and citizens of the world on the 11th of September, 2001,” Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, said.
In response to a query put by Senator George Lemieux, McChrystal said: “Were Osama bin Laden to come in there (in Afghanistan), that would become a huge priority for all of our forces. If he is not inside, it’s outside of my mandate right now.”
Senator Lemieux noted that American people still wanted to nab and eliminate Laden and it would continue to be a significant strategic military goal as well in terms of war fighting and trying to break the will of the enemy.
