Foreign Jihadis Flock To Afghanistan

And we were told that al Qaeda was finished. They've just moved shop back to Afghanistan, where they started. It is true that Bin Laden, Inc. was essentially forced out of Iraq. But now they are back in business in Pakistan/Afghanistan. We've come full circle. The incompetent Bush gang, after overthrowing the Taliban, have allowed them to come back. But now we no longer have the resources to defeat them this time around. The only way we can defeat the Taliban/al Qaeda in Afghanistan is with more troops. And the only way we are going to get more troops is with a draft. Do you want that? Because it is going to happen during the next administration, regardless of who the President is.

Afghanistan has been drawing a fresh influx of jihadi fighters from Turkey, Central Asia, Chechnya and the Middle East, one more sign that al Qaeda is regrouping on what is fast becoming the most active front of the war on terror groups.

More foreigners are infiltrating Afghanistan because of a recruitment drive by al Qaeda as well as a burgeoning insurgency that has made movement easier across the border from Pakistan, U.S. officials, militants and experts say.

For the past two months, Afghanistan has overtaken Iraq in deaths of U.S. and allied troops, and nine American soldiers were killed at a remote base in Kunar province Sunday in the deadliest attack in years.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned during a visit to Kabul this month about an increase in foreign fighters crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where a new government is trying to negotiate with militants.

A former high-ranking member of the pre-2001-invasion Taliban government, who spoke to CBS News' Sami Yousafzai on condition of anonymity on Monday, said the Taliban was benefiting hugely from a massive influx of foreign fighters.

The former minister, who presently lives in Pakistan, told Yousafzai that the attack on the U.S. troops in Kunar province was made possible by the new techniques and skills brought to the country by outsiders, and he admitted that Afghan Taliban were not previously capable of carrying out such daring attacks.

He called it a "well planed attack, and the start of a new resistance in direct combat with the invaders."