This is what happens when you don’t go home when the game is over:
ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Carney when was “the last time US troops in Afghanistan killed anybody associated with Al Qaeda.” Carney didn’t have an answer, and referred Tapper to the Defense Department and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
I queried those agencies Tuesday and got an answer today. According to a Defense Department spokesman, the most recent operation that killed an Al Qaeda fighter was in April 2011—ten months ago. However, there was an “Al Qaeda foreign fighter” captured near Kabul in May 2011, and an “Al Qaeda facilitator” captured in the Paktiya province on January 30 of this year.
By comparison, there have been 466 coalition fatalities since April 2011.
This can be spun one of two ways. But regardless, either the Coalition of the Willing – love those bizarre Bush administration names – has won the war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and should bring its troops home or it is losing by a 466-1 ratio and should promptly retreat before it ends up getting wiped out.