Counterterrorist Posture News Today

General petraeus a chance to succeed. >> there i agree with you. i dont understand what is gained by beginning the withdrawal now as opposed to july -- >> but i really am skeptical about counterinsurgency in afghanistan. i mean, i think in the mind of petraeus and his whole staff is exactly your point, iraq. thats where petraeus had his great success with the surge. its become a cliche that afghanistan is not iraq, but somehow its a cliche that no one seems to absorb and take the meaning of. the...

And the president would have to say these are risks we have to take because the alternative isnt working. its very hard to imagine a president telling the public that. >> were not going to know for sure the answer to those questions two, three, four, five years from now, so long as the taliban enjoy a sanctuary in pakistan, so long as the taliban continue to be the taliban. the challenge of making enduring improvements in afghanistan i actually think is a bridge too far. and again, im not talkin...

Counterterrorist posture or a full withdrawal. and you know, not a few months ago the foreign minister of pakistan, i asked him how would you feel about an american withdrawal, and he was absolutely incredulous. he was incredulous first of all that we would make this investment and then leave just like that. he was incredulous in terms of what it would do to american prestige in the region. and he also pointed out that pakistan would have to reassess its own options. you know, in the last year o...

Proportion all wrong. isnt that partly because were there and once combat troops are off that border and are out of eastern and southern afghanistan the chances of them moving in are pretty good? >> i think you have to think very carefully about the scenarios that play out in the event of an american withdrawal either to a kind of counterterrorist posture or a full withdrawal. and you know, not a few months ago the foreign minister of pakistan, i asked him how would you feel about an american wi...

We dont know what the consequences of the civil war would be for the region. and we dont know, above all, whether al qaeda and the taliban networks within which in the mountains of pakistan, at least, they are deeply intertwined, whether they would then have again a pretty large safe haven. we dont know. and the president would have to say these are risks we have to take because the alternative isnt working. its very hard to imagine a president telling the public that. >> were not going to know ...

To destitution, murder, and repression, and that to leave afghanistan would also leave us in a situation of considerably heightened peril and diminished prestige in a region where prestige matters. and i think that is a -- its -- i dont know how well that polls, but i think thats a defensible and moral position. and finally, to come back to the first point, we are pressing the panic button now, just as we were with iraq. we underestimate us, commentators and political scientists, the effects tha...