philosopher,
UAvs were first deployed in Balkans in 1995-6
in 1998, we were able to shoot cruise missiles at Al Qaeda fixed targets. so, technology was there.
from wiki: We were able to locate bin Laden from video in summer of 2000 and tested shooting a missile from Predator in February 2001. But we did not have permission from Stans to host a weapon there. In Feb 2002, we killed from the air someone resembling Bin Laden. Of course, it became harder later on, when capability became known and the terrorists started taking precautions.
I am not arguing one way or another re:training Afghans, just giving you facts. Maybe it was wrong trying to recruit a bigger army and train them as an Army. Afghans are pretty good at fighting their way, and their special forces by all accounts worked well. Hope now when they are left to their own way of fighting we will support them in a similar way Reagan helped them fight Soviets.