[Askel5]

Are you sitting down? (I want you to fall out of your chair on this one ...)

"My [major] concern is that the Americans may stop halfway in their battle against the Taliban if the latter surrender bin Laden.

If the United States does not finish the Taliban whatever it costs, Taliban leaders and militants will become like a disturbed swarm of bees that will fly out of Afghanistan and create their nests all over the world.

This won't eliminate terrorism but just spread it around the globe."

--Retired Russian Col. Gen. Viktor Kot,
former commander of the Soviet air force, who served two tours in Afghanistan.

LOL!

On a more sobering note ... George S. Patton is spinning in his grave.

[patent]

I agree with the general. Whatever we fail to finish over there will rise up and attack us again. I know those who fail to recall history's lessons are doomed to repeat them, but seldom does the son get the chance to make the exact same foreign policy blunder the father did only a decade before. While I regret the loss of life over there, and while I would prefer to see the terrorists jailed than see them killed, sometimes, like here, there is little choice. We remove them or they will serve as a thorn in our side for the forseable future.

Once that is done we must give the Afghans something to live for, but it must be done first. There is no peace after a partial victory, only a brief calm while everyone reloads.

patent