Richard Holbrooke expressed these views in an article, which appeared in the Foreign Affairs magazine recently.
He said the situation in Afghanistan was far from hopeless. But as the war enters its eighth year, Americans should be told the truth: it will last a long time — longer than the United States’ longest war to date, the 14-year conflict (1961-75) in Vietnam.
https://web.archive.org/web/20090203131020/http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=19861
First, England entered the land of Afghanistan a mighty global empire and was run out marking the end of the British Lion dominatiing the world stage.
Second, The mighty Russian Bear entered Afghanistan in appearance of an invincible global empire and left only to see a short time later the name Soviet Union to enter the dustbin of history.
Now, comes the mighty Yanks from the Brave New World with economy on the brink of collaspe thus affecting it's ability to pay for any long protracted war. What will history say of us when we get down this road?
President Obama is correct about one thing, continue the course and change is what he is gonna get. However, the end product may not be what he had in mind!
Osama bin Laden at this moment must be in pure bliss knowing that the Eagle is crashing and burning just as the Bear and Lion before have already done.
http://reason.com/blog/show/131201.html
He can see the crusader knights near that time where they trod home in utter defeat and the Sons of Ismael crush the Sons of Issac and take back their father Abraham's inheritance. Osama knows from history that Afghanistan is a western empire killer!
