Former bin Laden Tracker Calls for U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan

[tekisui]

Source: The Buffalo News

SANBORN — The United States should withdraw its forces from Afghanistan if it's not going to send enough troops to win, a former intelligence agent said Monday night.

Michael F. Scheuer, who was in charge of the Central Intelligence Agency's hunt for terrorist kingpin Osama bin Laden, told a small audience at Niagara County Community College that the U.S. would do itself a favor by withdrawing from the entire Middle East "to the greatest extent compatible with our national interest."

He said the U.S. needs to return to the Founding Fathers' foreign policy of self-defense and setting a democratic example for the world, instead of trying to export our system by force.

"No young man or woman should die for the insane goal of giving Iraq or Iran a democratic government," said Scheuer, a Buffalo-area native who earned a bachelor's degree at Canisius College and a master's degree at Niagara University.

He was in charge of the bin Laden tracking team from 1996 to 1999 and was a special advisor to the unit's new chief for three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

He said that the U.S. stands little chance of killing the al-Quida chief.

"It's a very long shot. He has a very good chance of dying of old age," Scheuer said. "The great bulk of our forces have nothing to do with going after Osama bin Laden, who's probably not in Afghanistan anyway.

"If we're not going to go after him whole hog, which we haven't done since 2001, we might as well leave it to the methods the last two presidents have decided was sufficient, which is the intelligence services and the drones and the special forces."

more: http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/04/19/1024450/former-bin-laden-tracker-calls.html

[gratuitous]

1. So, how many troops would it take to "win" in Afghanistan?

And what would "winning" look like? I fully agree that we need to get the hell out of Afghanistan, but this nonsense that we could win if only they sent enough troops over is just fatuous.

[Swamp Rat]

3. The answer is: none

We can only 'win' if we remove all troops from Afghanistan right now.

This is what 'winning' looks like:

[Poll_Blind]

4. +1000 n/t

PB

[panader0]

2. "if it's not going to send enough troops to win"

No amount of troops can "win" this horrible conflict. A huge number of troops could occupy the country, with soldiers on every corner. But the citizens of Afghanistan would never cease to resent their presence, and "insurgency" would never stop.