Quote Originally Posted by Papewaio View Post
If 9/11 happened but all the resources were thrown into Afghanistan then Bush would have had far more intentional support and post presidency good will (which translates into $$$ on the speaking circuit).

It might even be possible that Afghanistan might be on its way to being the next Nepal rather then the next Syria, Somalia or Iraq.
My preference at the time, having accepted that the US needed to take action to demonstrate that it wasn't to be sniped at without consequence, was for a big noise punitive-style strike, followed by leasing out the war to reasonably friendly local agents. If another OBL-type figure arose as a result, it would be unfortunate, but you can't entirely control these things, and shifting funding to another faction would effectively take care of this. Britain never completely had Afghanistan under its control during the Great Game, and I don't see any other foreign power ever doing so either. The USSR probably had the best chance, and we know what happened there.