Ex-Pakistan spy chief: Afghanistan war 'lost cause'CNN: The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is a 'lost cause,' said a former Pakistani intelligence chief, and the United States needs to negotiate peace with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. 'You have to talk to him, and I am sure it will work out very well.' Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul told CNN's Fareed Zakaria...
The career military officer, who supported the U.S.-backed Taliban resistance against Soviet occupation during the 1980s, called the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan 'unjust' and said he sees legitimacy in the Afghan insurgency against Western forces. 'This is a national resistance movement. It should be recognized as such.'
The attacks of September 11 were a pretext to a war already under consideration, Gul said. 'I think some of the neocons... wanted [to] embark on a universal adventure of Pax Americana, and they thought that the world was lying prostrate in front of them.'... There was no legitimate reason for the United States to attack Afghanistan, Gul said, because the FBI had no solid evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the attacks on New York and Washington...
The hunt for al-Qaeda does not justify the almost 9-year-old war either because the global terrorist movement has moved on... The United States and its allies won't win the war in Afghanistan, said Gul, who referred to U.S. NATO allies as 'pallbearers.'... 'Time is on the side of the resistance... I would advise President Obama -- please, do not listen to your military, because militaries have [the] unfortunate tendency never to accept their defeat.'...
The only solution would be peace negotiations with Taliban leader Mullah Omar... 'There is only one man who can give the guarantee that there will be no terrorism exported from Afghanistan,' Gul said. 'Don't talk to Karzai; he's a puppet.'
