By the way, Larry, your take on the Northern Alliance is slightly skewed. The NA was virtually immobilized for years, making no progress whatsoever against the Taliban, until we dropped in some Special Forces spotters with GPS and direct connections to B-52s overhead. It was accurately targeted high-tech bombs that blew the Taliban out of the way; the Northern Alliance came in behind to pick up the pieces.
Jack, you need to get your facts straight. Recommended reading: "First In", by Gary Schroen. CIA teams were on the ground in Afghanistan weeks before SF teams arrived. They were already identifying targets, coordinating with the NA--which was preparing its upcoming offensive against the Taliban.
And the fact the NA had even survived--significantly outmanned and outgunned as they were--is what gave us a base of operations inside Afghanistan from which to launch the ground offensive that recaptured Kabul in a very short period of time. And you don't win wars strictly from the air. Were airpower alone capable of doing that, we would have won easily in Vietnam, would not have needed Schwarzkopf in Desert Storm, and would not have needed to invade Iraq to get rid of Saddam. And, for that matter, the Soviets wouldn't have been driven out of Afghanistan in the first place.
