Potential Game Changer in Afghanistan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told hundreds of airmen at Seymour-Johnson AFB, N.C., there’s the possibility that Osama bin Laden’s death “could be a game changer” in Afghanistan. “Bin Laden and [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar had a very close personal relationship. There are others in the Taliban who have felt betrayed by al Qaeda, that it was because of al Qaeda’s attack on the United States that the Taliban got thrown out of Afghanistan. So we’ll have to see what that relationship looks like,” Gates said Friday. He said, however, it could take up to six months to determine the full effect of the terrorist leader’s death. US special forces killed bin Laden May 1 inside his compound in the military town of Abbottabad, Pakistan, roughly 35 miles north of Islamabad. (Gates transcript) (See also AFPS report by Jim Garamone)