nick spicer, al jazeera, washington. >>> whether th violence in afghanistan and iraq can be brought to an end anytime soon is a question on many people's minds. nora bensahel is a senior of political scientist at rand corporation and expert on american efforts in afghanistan and iraq. and she joins us from washington. thanks very much for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> many people of course are wondering has our involvement in iraq and in afghanistan, in terms of lives lost and money spent, been worth it? and i guess the question to you is, has it? >> well, i think that the two conflicts are very different and has had different sets of . the war in afghanistan is very clearly tied to what happened on september 11th, 2001. those attacks were coordinated and planned from afghan territory. and so the objective of that operation have really been to ensure that there is no more taliban presence in the country that can facilitate something like that happening again. vaik much murkier question. after the invasion and the initial rationale for the war didn't seem to hold up with th