I saw Michael Scheurer on Fox News a little while ago...and was asked about this lack of NATO forces..AFTER being interviewed about the death of one of the Taliban leaders...
He said that for Prs. Bush to even think that a democratic Afghanistan will EVER happen, is “nonsense, and they should know from the history of when Russia tried to take out the Taliban, that with a smaller NATO fighing force, it is stupid, to think otherwise”....
So....I guess even that ex-CIA guy that the networks LOVE to put on for his knowledge....thinks that Afghanistan is a waste of time, like Iraq....
BTW...kabar, I was the “judge” last week, and I had to debate quite a while before giving you 1st Place...your posts were well thought out..and you didn’t back down from any and all other posters that had different opinions.
THAT was impressive...and I thought you should be recognized for that...
However, if/when I judge a thread again, I can’t/won’t do that for you or anyone else that chooses to get personal, and make snarky attacks...
I thought you mostly did NOT do that..and so that is why I didn’t let it affect my judgement last week....however, I sense that there is a “trigger temper”....and I know you can make great arguements for your position with out the snarky remarks..
AND, so can everyone else on this thread....IMHO.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, SLEUTHIE :)
Known as "Anonymous" when his book, Imperial Hubris, came out in 2004, Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years and as chief of the bin Laden unit of the Director of Central Intelligence Counterterrorist Center from 1996-1999. Since publication of Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror, and his subsequent resignation from the CIA in November, 2004, Scheuer has offered informed, passionate, and controversial commentary on U.S. policy in the Middle East. Frustrated with the Bush Administration's simplistic portrayal of terrorists as "freedom haters," he talked with BuzzFlash about the anti-American insurgency and the American foreign policy choices that he believes fuel it.
An advocate of frank discussion of the Muslim perspective, he both urges us, and helps us, to understand this war, and why it won't be easy to end. He also characterizes our recent U.S. presidential campaign as "completely barren on both sides of any discussion of the foreign policy issues that are at play in this war..." We don't agree with everything Scheuer has to say (we think, for instance, there is a distinction to be made between the Sharon Likud government and Israel, just as there is a distinction to be made between the Bush government and America), but he knows terrorism about as well as anybody and needs to be heard.
Scheurer represents the conventional wisdom, which is more often wrong than right. I am sure that he didn't predict the fall of the Berlin Wall or the disintegration of the Soviet Union either. I saw and heard some of the political reporting coming out of Warsaw during the days of Solidarnosc and out of Berlin in the mid-80s. I was in Berlin during Reagan's 1987 "Mr, Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech. No one of any government agency predicted that just two years later, the wall would fall. And in fact the State Department tried to take out that phrase several times because they felt it was too confrontational. The Agency has been wrong too many times to take people like Scheurer seriously.
BTW...kabar, I was the “judge” last week, and I had to debate quite a while before giving you 1st Place...your posts were well thought out..and you didn’t back down from any and all other posters that had different opinions. However, if/when I judge a thread again, I can’t/won’t do that for you or anyone else that chooses to get personal, and make snarky attacks...
I don't respond on this thread to be judged or get awards. I express my honest opinions. I am puzzled as to why you find it necessary to raise this with me publicly. Am I supposed to feel grateful? Who is choosing to get personal?