MCCRYSTAL'S ENEMIES

Have you read the McChrystal report? It is quite an eye-opener.The McChrystal report lists three principal opponents:

• the Quetta Shura (the Afghan Taliban, based in Quetta, in Pakistan's Baluchistan Province);

• the network of Jalaladin Haqqani, operating in Afghanistan; and the followers of

• Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, also operating in Afghanistan. What do these three groups have in common? They all have had connections with the Pakistani Intelligence Service (ISI).

It says relatively little about al-Qaeda, which President Obama has rightly singled out as the enemy. Al Qaeda is not even in Afghanistan anymore but in Pakistan's tribal regions. Al Qaeda's strength may not number more than a couple of hundred. The retrospective truth is that Afghanistan ceased to be a "necessary war" in late 2001, when al-Qaeda escaped into Pakistan.