Amos,

I think that you find that at no time did the Intelligence Agencies EVER call Afghanistan "the greatest threat to America" - If they did please provide a reference for that assessment.

On two occasions however they did carry out threat evaluations as to who posed "the greatest threat to America", once for President Bill Clinton in 1998 and once for George W. Bush in 2002. In both cases their reasoning and their conclusions were the same - IRAQ.

Besides which the "US" contribution to Afghanistan has never been subject to accusations of being under resourced or underfunded. I take it that you do realise that the US contribution is the United States of America's - Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan. The area in which accusations of under resourcing and underfunding abound is the NATO-ISAF mission to Afghanistan.

US-OEF was tasked with denying Afghanistan to Al-Qaeda and fighting their Taliban hosts whenever and wherever they are encountered. In that they have been pretty successful, since 2001 Al-Qaeda has been in hiding over the border in Pakistan, playing no significant role in anything.

NATO-ISAF, of which US General Stanley McChrystal is the commander was tasked with providing security for the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) and with training the Afghan Security forces. In 2006 when this force was given responsibility for Helmand and Kandahar Provinces the Taliban went onto the offensive and attacked.