US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday there is “no silver bullet” to completely destroy al-Qaeda but argued that killing Osama bin Laden helped set the network back.
Panetta spoke to reporters aboard a military plane on his way from Latin America, where he visited Colombia, Brazil and Chile to bolster bilateral military cooperation and regional security ties.
“Having been involved in the operations, even before we did bin Laden, it’s clear that there is no kind of silver bullet here to suddenly being able to destroy al-Qaeda, and that includes even going after bin Laden,” he said.
“But the way this works is that the more successful we are at taking down those who represent their spiritual and ideological leadership, the greater our ability to weaken their threat to this country and to other countries.”
