Coalition 'cannot win' in Iraq or Afghanistan

[Barrett808]

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Coalition 'cannot win' in Iraq or Afghanistan
By Graeme Dobell

One of Australia's top defence experts says the United States-led coalition cannot win the conflicts in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Professor Hugh White, the head of Canberra's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, has told the ABC's Correspondents Report the coalition will eventually abandon Afghanistan.

He says the US cannot succeed in Iraq, but has no escape from the tragedy its invasion has created in the strategically important Gulf region.

"...the core difficulties we face in each case are somewhat similar, and that is that the resources that the West has available, and the timeframes over which we're prepared to bring them to bear, are just way too small to make a difference to the really deep-seated security problems, political problems, social problems, that really underpin the crises in each place."

...

"I think the interaction of those two would require - if the West was to prevail - an effort 10 times the size of the one we've got at the moment, and lasting for a generation.

"I just don't see the West being prepared to put in that kind of scale of effort."

Read more: http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/18/2094012.htm?section=world

[rodeodance]

1. more Truth to power.

[journalist3072]

2. George W. Bush has presided over 2 failed wars.. It's just that simple.

[KewlKat]

3. Now, can we keep his score from becoming 3?

I feel a strike on Iran is inevitable.

[rAVES]

5. War is a failure in the first place.. in this case though a crime against humanity. Bush should hang

[Robbien]

8. Three failed wars. You forgot Somalia

The US taxpayer financed Ethiopian invasion, slaughter and occupation of this poor country is equal to the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes. The only difference is it gets even less print than the other two.

[rAVES]

4. Just how the hell can you "win" in Iraq? it's baffling...

I'd love to see that asked of these right wing animals.. what the hell do you mean by win? pacify the country into doing your fucked up bidding?

No... if it means Normalizing Iraq into a stable safe country then I call bullshit.. that would be despite the US not because of.

[ohio2007]

6. I can't see how the Taliban can win in Afghanistan with their approach of

winning hearts and minds like this;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3070111

<crickets>

[LynnTheDem]

7. Sane people around the world knew this before bush's illegal invasion

of Iraq; and anyone even slightly familiar with Afghanistan's history knew the USSA would fail there, too.

It's another DUHHHH, no shit, Sherlock!" moment.

[TheLastMohican]

9. That was damn obvious from the start

Throughout history not a single country could successfully occupy Afganistan.
Ask the Macedonians, the British and the Russians.

No one takes historic lessons these days.

[AndyTiedye]

10. We Tried To Warn Them

[BornagainDUer]

11. first you have to ...

define what "win" is.