Washington, Jan 6(ANI): Several critics have said that the US has put too much prominence to large-scale military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and emphasized that Al-Qaeda has used convenient tools like the Internet and the lawless regions of failed or weak states like Yemen and Somalia to build its networks.

“It’s gotten to be like the old whack-a-mole game, where we’ve hit them here, but they’ve just popped right back up over there,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted Judith Yaphe, a former CIA Middle East analyst, as saying.”We’re not going to bomb our way to a solution in Afghanistan, and it’s not going to be by forgetting about all the other places where these groups have influence, either,” she added.

The Obama administration is recognizing the validity of some of the criticism, and has pumped 70 million dollars in counterterrorism aid to the Yemeni government in its bid to dismantle the Al-Qaeda in Yemen - a country crucial to his vow to defeat global terrorism.

According to reports, Obama knows that he cannot dismantle or defeat Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, because Al Qaeda is no longer there - it is across the border in Pakistan.

With Pakistan either unable or unwilling to dismantle the terrorist networks of Al Qaeda and its allies in its tribal areas, Obama can only hope to keep Al Qaeda from expanding into Afghanistan again and growing stronger.

In Yemen, however, he can strike at Al Qaeda directly and has a partner that is apparently willing to do so. (ANI)