A mechanic inspects an MQ-9 Reaper drone at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada in August 2007. The Reaper, recently introduced to the battleground on the Afghan-Pakistan border, can fly twice as fast and high as the smaller MQ-1 Predators. The aircraft are flown by a pilot and a sensor operator from ground-control stations. Getty Images / Ethan Miller.From NPR:
CIA-directed airstrikes against al-Qaida leaders and facilities in Pakistan over the past six to nine months have been so successful, according to senior U.S. officials, that it is now possible to foresee a "complete al-Qaida defeat" in the mountainous region along the border with Afghanistan.
The officials say the terrorist network's leadership cadre has been "decimated," with up to a dozen senior and midlevel operatives killed as a result of the strikes and the remaining leaders reeling from the repeated attacks.
"The enemy is really, really struggling," says one senior U.S. counterterrorism official. "These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years."
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My Comment: For an enemy that is struggling, they and their allies have defeated the Pakistani Army in the Frontier Regions of Pakistan and are now attacking Pakistani provinces like Swat, and on top of that they and their allies control much of the countryside in Afghanistan.
If they are struggling .... our state and the state of our allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan must be much worse.