The West Will Fail, Says Ex-CIA Operative

Mr Scheuer said the US and its allies continually became involved in Middle East wars because of their reliance on Arab oil supplies and had little other interest in the region. The US had tried "to do Afghanistan on the cheap" and that defeat there was "just around the corner," he said. Mr Scheuer's bleak declaration came as the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said the war in Iraq could last for many years. General Petraeus said the new "surge" strategy involving 30,000 extra US troops was having a positive effect in parts of Baghdad and the surrounding areas but such operations in places such as Northern Ireland took decades. "I don't know whether this will be decades but the average counter-insurgency is somewhere around a nine or a 10-year endeavour." http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/07/10/1183833519273.html

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