"Washington’s national security goal is to prevent the reemergence of a safe haven for al Qaeda inside Afghanistan. Today, no such safe haven is possible, thanks to U.S. special operations raids, a network of informants, and U.S. surveillance capabilities. A force of around 20,000 U.S. soldiers can prevent a safe haven indefinitely, as long as the Afghan army controls the cities and highways (which makes the cohesion of the Afghan army a key part of the U.S. and NATO drawdown)."

Found this in an article on Bing West's webpage. Is this realistic?? I have an interest in this as regards the PhD. I have long thought that the ODA and NSW teams along with the CIA SAD teams originally deployed in 2001 could have done something similar. Particularly given there UW brief. Could it be done? What are the caveats regarding this? e.g. Drones, CAS and other forms of support.

Viper.