Strategic Assessment

The war in Afghanistan is essentially over, though some remnants of the Taliban and al-Qa’ida remain, and ‘mopping up’ actions may continue for some time. While the US has yet to capture al-Qa’ida leader Osama Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, it seems likely that the search for them – barring their capture in the near future in the framework of the sweeping searches presently being conducted in Afghanistan – will be conducted primarily by intelligence and police methods, rather than through military operations. This article deals with the preliminary operational and strategic lessons that Israel can draw from the Afghanistan campaign. It should be emphasized that the present article does not discuss the comprehensive subject of the war on terror; rather, it focuses on lessons that can be derived from the operational aspects of the US campaign in Afghanistan.