President Obama has repeatedly defined the minimum necessary objectives for our national security in Afghanistan: disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda and create conditions that will prevent its return. Osama bin Laden is dead, but Al Qaeda remains viable.

Ryan Crocker, the United States ambassador to Afghanistan, recently told The Telegraph, “Al-Qaeda is still present in Afghanistan. If the West decides that 10 years in Afghanistan is too long then they will be back, and the next time it will not be New York or Washington, it will be another big Western city.”

Please read the full text at the Critical Threats Project.