20/20 hindsight
If I could press the rewind button and also make myself benevolent dictator of Amerika in the shadow of 9-11-01, I'd have blown the ****■□■□¤¤¤°☆☆☆♧**** out of AQ and the Taliban until they were holed up in ToraBora.
Then I would have nuked the ******** out of Torabora.
At that point I'd issue an ultimatum to the jihadis: you want a caliphate? Turn this sandheap into one. Stay here and play nice with your own kind. Attack America again ---- send one more Jihadi over to crash one airplane into a 100 year old outhouse, and your caliphate will be glowing in the dark just like Torabora.
Trying to rebuild A'Stan was/is a mistake.
Iraq was a mistake.
Scaring the livin' h3ll out of the jihadis might stand a better chance ..... and wouldn't have cost so many lives.
But .... we'll never know.