The CIA airstrike in Pakistan

[El Blanco]

You also have to consider the logistics of sending in a ground team. You have to tear that uit away from whatever they are doing and trek them across one bitch of a mountain range.

Lets say hypothetically (of course this is all academic),al-Zawahiri was there. A Marine Recon team is sent from Afghanistan to go and get him. They have to get across that mountain range, run into some resistence. The resistance get on their sat phone or even just use a crude relay set up and get word to the village.

So, when our guys get there, the target has already fled and an ambush has been set up. And considering that hiding behind non-combatants for cover is a common tactic used by these assholes, 18 civilian casualties would be optimistic.