Chuck Hagel says time to wind down in Afghanistan
Source: Lincoln Journal Star, 5/3/2011
ASP Board Member former Senator Chuck Hagel is featured.
By Don Walton
The death of Osama bin Laden provides an opportunity for the Obama administration to escalate the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, former Sen. Chuck Hagel said Tuesday.
“I believe the president will come up with a cogent way to disengage that’s responsible,” Hagel said during a telephone interview from Washington. “He’s got to start heading toward the exits.”
President Barack Obama already is on course toward a July decision on beginning the withdrawal of U.S. ground troops, with a judgment yet to be made on how many and how fast.
“We need to start winding this down. The worst thing we can do is get bogged down (with) no way of getting out,” Hagel said, while military casualties mount, resources are squandered and Americans become increasingly viewed as occupiers and oppressors.
Hagel, who is co-chairman of the president’s intelligence advisory board, stressed that he was speaking only for himself and expressing a purely personal view.
For some time, Hagel has believed it would be wiser to target al-Qaida operatives and terrorists with drones, smart bombs and special forces rather than by placing 100,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan.
The pursuit of bin Laden and al-Qaida was “the reason we invaded Afghanistan 10 years ago” following the 2001 terrorist attacks on America, Hagel said.
“The Taliban and al-Qaida are two different elements.
“We have lost our purpose, our objective. We are in a universe of unpredictables and uncontrollables,” he said…
