Gorbachev: The US Must Take Blame for Fanning Islamic Fundamentalism

[Better Believe It]

Gorbachev: The US Must Take Blame for Fanning Islamic Fundamentalism
Britain should pull out of Afghanistan, says the ex-Soviet leader
by Matthew Bell
February 27, 2011

In a wide-ranging interview with The Independent on Sunday, marking his 80th birthday on Wednesday, Mr Gorbachev also calls on David Cameron to withdraw British troops from Afghanistan. And, in comments that risk provoking outrage in the US, he portrays the war against Islam as a conflict partly of the US's own making.

"It's called the historical and political boomerang," he says, referring to the US's secret funding of Islamic extremists during the 1980s, when the Americans were fighting communism. " were working in secret with those forces with whom they are now fighting. They should accept their part of the blame. Let them say so. I think God has some mechanism that he uses to punish those that make mistakes."

Drawing on his experience of six years governing the USSR, from 1985 to 1991, when he helped end the Cold War and oversaw the collapse of communism, Mr Gorbachev condemns the Western occupation of Afghanistan, and issues a direct appeal to Mr Cameron to act. "I am using this interview to appeal to the Prime Minister to go in the right direction on Afghanistan," he says. "I am appealing to him to set that goal. And I am not saying that he should do it exactly the same way we did it."

Earlier this month, Mr Gorbachev welcomed the uprising in Egypt: "The people have spoken and made clear they do not want to live under authoritarian rule." In today's interview, he appeals to a generation of young people to enter politics and the media, to regain control, and to restore democracy, describing himself as an idealist.

Gorbachev portrays the war against Islam as a conflict partly of the US's own making.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/27

[FreakinDJ]

1. Must be all the Sex on the Internet

[DCKit]

2. Still, he's no Jimmy Carter. nt

[Better Believe It]

3. But he's right on this.

[Bandit]

4. All I can say to that is ...Duhhhhhh

:shrug: