Former Senior Pentagon Official: Iraq, Afghan wars imperil United States

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C11%5C04%5Cstory_4-11-2005_pg4_6

* Ex- official says US risks losing sight of relations with China and Muslim world

WASHINGTON: The United States risks losing sight of some key foreign policy issues, including relations with China and the Muslim world, because of its “single-minded focus” on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a former senior Pentagon official said.

“We have to put the search radar on again for the rest of the world,” said Suzanne Patrick, who resigned as Defence undersecretary for industrial policy in July.

“After four years of single-minded focus on the global war on terror we must be careful that we’re not missing other things going on in the world,” she said in an interview with Reuters. Patrick said the United States was making policies toward China and other key issues in “an ad hoc, sort of reflexive” way because it lacked a coherent national strategic plan.

During her four years at the Pentagon, Patrick said she saw poor coordination among agencies such as the Pentagon, Treasury and State Department and said military policies often did not reflect economic or political considerations and vice versa. Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, last month criticized the administration’s national security decision-making process. He said there was a “cabal” including Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that held sway over policy.

[rpannier]

1. The Afghan War wouldn't have imperiled the US

if scrub had stayed the F**K out of Iraq and focused on the Center of the War on Terror.

[NNN0LHI]

3. I am not trying to sound like an a-hole here but...

...do you honestly believe we have been chasing international terrorists around Afghanistan since 2001?

Don

[rpannier]

5. If we had been 100% focused on Afghanistan and the War on Terror

chances are we'd have Bin Laden by now and we would have made considerably more progress in rooting out the rest of Al-Qaeda. But, because we diverted our attention to the personal pet interests of this admin and their friends we lost out on the chance. That was and is my point.

[NNN0LHI]

6. I respect your opinion

But I don't agree with it.

One thing I think we can all agree on is the that Afghanistan has become the worlds number one heroin supplier since the USA invaded.

Don

[rpannier]

7. And that it still sux to live there...

Unless you're last name is Khan or you're another Warlord.

[NNN0LHI]

8. I sure agree with that completely n/t

[Swamp Rat]

2. We have yet to reap the bad karma Bushler has sown for us.

Our country is MUCH more likely to be attacked now, thanks to Bushler and his greedy Nazi GOP thugs. x(

[Freedom_from_Chains]

4. We've been missing other things going on in the world

for a long time, much to our detriment.