CNN

GORBACHEV, GORBACHEV, DOES MR.ONE TERM HAVE THE SLIGHEST IDEA OF WHAT COUNTRY HE IS LIVING IN ? Does he have any ability to be shamed by his own inability to lead a capitalist country that he is trying to make over into a communist country. Are we ever going to get this after the fact government to react to this pathetic person that is in the place we reserve for men.Are we sure that we are being lead by sane people. After all some fool was going to send a insane man to a war zone, and it looks like not one person was about to question this move??. Certainly W/ all the people killed or wounded that general Casey looks and sounds like he needs counseling.Their has to be some one in this GOV.to sound the alarm before the fact.

Who really cares what Gorbachev thinks. "Dialog" will not end Al Queda or its partners in crime and militant Islam. See also Iranian nuclear crisis. (How's that "diolog" coming? Oooops). Sadly, Obama is the Neville Chamberlain of our time.

This is arguably the most complex foreign policy challenge of our time. There are no right answers in this case. There is no conceivable victory and it will be stupid not to learn from history. No matter the commitment, technology, dedication, brilliance of strategy, it will only yield short term success. In the long term, Afghanistan will maintain its reputation as the graveyard of empires. This war, threatens the US more economically than any other way. I agree with Gorbachev, the strategy should be to pullout. There should be a surge of troops for 2 years. All Afghan neighbors should get involved in rooting out those who advocate global jihad. When the pullout finally goes through, a residual force should be left there to disrupt, bomb etc.

yeah, don't invade in December

As far as I remember Gorbachev lost the war with them.

I hope President Obama has the courage to take the advice of a man who has been been down the road we're on...

Of course, if he does the everyone from Republican Moderates to Tea-Baggers will be crying foul, commie, socialist, see – I told you so!

Obama's Administration hasn't met that many times. The majority of time was spent on health care reform.

This article from Gorbachev says INTERNATIONALTERRORISM COULD NOT BE IGNORED!

IF THE TROOPS STAY–GIVE THEM MORE TROOPS AND POSSESS THE LAND–NOT TO TRY AND STABLIZE BUT TAKE CONTROL!

IF AMERICA ISN'T PREPARED TO DO THIS, THEN DRAW THE TROOPS OUT ASAP! Don't lay the foundation for withdrawal-Just Do IT!!!

The former Russian leader was/is respected by most Americans!
Surprise! Don't agree with all his ways, but I think the advice is sound!!!

Does Obama have the heart and courage to DO THE RIGHT THING? Does he truly CARE about the PEOPLE as he so presented himself to be? I agree we should leave and use our resources in the USA. There is a war right here, right now.. Unemployment, Crime, Corruption, Drugs, Lack of Education etc..

Well that ought to send the Mr. Beck over the edge.

I'm not going to suggest its easy- but tell Karzai he has 1 year to make real progress on the corruption front or we're out- oh and remind him that IF we decide to pull out his name and those of his corrupt officials will certainly be at the top of the Taliban's lists.

Comrade Obozo now getting advice from Gorbachev?

How befitting as we celebrate the 20 yr anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Last night Liberal Dems passed the largest piece of Socialistic legislation in American History! Thank you Pelosi and Obama liberals doing your part in bringing The Wall to America because of your unquenchable thirst for Big Government control and political empowerment! You will rue the day when re-election day comes!

If anyone should know what to do in Afghanistan it's the Russians. Another country, like Vietnam, where we should leave ASAP. The whole point of Afghanistan was to find bin laden and we all know how well that turned out for the cheney/bush dictatorship.

Obama won't increase troop levels and will not draw down. It's called the "Slow Bleed" strategy.

Incompetence in the Oval Office = more US troop deaths.

NO MORE US TROOPS TO AFGHANISTAN!

There is nothing to "win" there. It is dirt poor with a corrupt government and the Taliban are only there because we are.

Obama is a tool of israel if he sends even one more soldier.

He should fire McChrystal and maybe some other generals too. We have civilian control over the military and maybe they need to be reminded of this fact.

The Kagans and other neocons need to be investigated for possibly spying on behalf of israel.

In this particular case I agree with Gorbachev, our goal should be to withdraw & maybe we could learn from what they(Russia) did & give that opinoin more attention. However I have confidence in Pres Obama to make the correct decision.

I do think that President Obama should follow the advice of The former soviet leader. Who better to have first hand experience than the soviets. I do not think adding more troops will make any difference to the state of life in Afghanistan. The Afghans should decide for themselves what they really want for their nation.

so this should tell Obama that he should send them.

Bring them home from Bush/Cheney 's war yesterday .

yeah afghanistan is a mess. But the whole world has a stake in this, to repell terrorism, to repell islamic extremism and stop the production of devastating illegal drugs around the world. This is not just a US problem, this is a world problem....we need 70,000 more troops but those should come equally from the largets 50 countries, not from the US alone.

Of course the outcome will be different for us. We're going to win. (Whatever that means.) The writing's on the wall. It seems like we'll never learn.

Words that should be heeded.
They've been there and done that.
As for Afghanistan becoming a staging area for terrorists, I say let the UN and global community get involved.
We the people of the U.S. are tired of policing the world.

Well the president ignores the advise of his military leaders, so why not take Gorbi's advise? After all, this not an issue that he can continue to vote present on!

If we withdraw the Afghan women pay the price. I think we should pull out and offer every woman in Afghanastan a green card and a one way ticket to the US and job training in the US. Let the Afghan men fight over a wifeless, motherless, daughterless wasteland.
Without a solution that frees the oppressed women of this place, we have failed.

Oh, that's just what we need...a socialist giving our socialist advice!

Finally, a voice of reason to drown out the noise of the rabble. Can we not learn the quagmire we saw another superpower bog down under? No organized force can prevail against a determined insurgency. Rome experienced that truth. Persia, Babylon, Egypt; all have subjugated and then capitulated. Britain, France, Spain; all have conquered and then withdrawn.

If history repeats itself, and futile repetitious expressions are the definition of insanity, what should that tell us about ourselves?

How many more voices of experience must be ignored before the only logical move - to withdraw from Afghanistan– takes place. Are we going to continue to bankrupt our own country for a tribal area 1/2 way around the world? For a region that has resisted change for a thousand years! We are going to change Afghanistan? I don't think so.
Will the voices of reason drown out the voices of the Military-Industrial complex that survive on this squandering of our nations resources, or are we going to keep on until we are financially and morally destitute? Wake up America!!!

It probably would be the best idea to take Gorbachev's adivce and begin the work to bring our troops home.

Afghanistan is ruled by tribes, war lords, religious leaders and hoodlums growing poppies for durgs.

They do not want to give up their rule on their patch of ground regardless of the size and regardless of the potential of being killed by the taliban or Al Qeada or some other bigger tribe or better armed war lord.

someone who's been there

Gorbachev has good points to offer from his experience.
In addition, dare one suggest that the USA might lessen the threat of terrorists to our country by altering our biased approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, especially in regard to Biblically based Zionist claims by Israel to land that was Palestine since about the time of Constantine's Maxwell-Perkins-style editing of the holy scriptures to the glory of God? The USA has a little thing called separation of church and state.
Arab terrorists are not mad at us because we have pop stars who are material girls.
A more even-handed approach to Palestine and Israel would lessen our need for doomed troops in that part of the world.
Is it possible to win the Nobel Peace Prize twice in a row?

Deficit worry Lieberman will jump to his feet to attack and spend money on Afghanistan,Iran and Iraq but won't support health care bill.

Excellent advice! From one socialist to another. I'm quite sure the the "extensive" decision making process currently underway in the Obama administration will lead to this very conclusion. Forget that Gorbie has some Sovie... err, I mean Russian self-serving motives. It's still a good socialist thing to do. Somehow.

Of course this guy has your best interests at heart.

We need advice from another source. According to Gorbachev the Soviet Union sought to "promote national reconciliation" after killing more than a million Afghan civilians. When in the history of human civilization has this occured?

Now, there is a real leader.....

President Obama, a word to the wise is enough! Even if you are the Prophet Mohammed, you cannot win anything in Afghanistan. You cannot convert the country into a Jeffersonian Democracy like the state of Virginia in four years or eight years which is the maximum number of years you can be president.

Stop listening to these war hungry generals who are just interested in fighting wars to boost their careers. You are setting up US troops as sitting ducks for suicide bombers, IEDs, guerilla warfare tactics. The only people who benefit from an escalation of the war in Afghanistan are the groups who benefit from the spoils of the military-industrial complex!!!!!

"emphasize domestic development in Afghanistan and promoting national reconciliation between the various clans in the country."

Really, must have been a different war than I recall, as we were pumping everything but the kitchen sink into the hands of the clans and Taliban to kill Soviet helicopters and soldiers. Soviet forces were brutal and tried projecting pure force. Economic development, while providing security and a functional national security force is the way to deal with Afganistan. But the Afgans are the only ones can give the Afgans peace.

Luv you, Pres. Obama, but do you remember your History 101 class . . .

"To not know what happened before you were born, leaves you forever a child."

-Cicero

You've got to be kidding me. The USSR was intent on dominating and destroying the country. We are trying to make it a democracy, to rid it of the Taliban, and to get rid of the the terrorist bases. To compare the two is insulting and offensive. For CNN to not point this out is insulting, idiotic, and irresponsible. I'm not surprised though. I doubt the child who wrote this has any clue about the 1979 invasion, or the President Carter boycotted the Olympics over it. Pathetic

No no no Gorbachev we have the best army in the world we can win in afghanistan where all the other greatest armies has failed.
We will kill all talibans and terrorists even if they will keep recruiting djihadist from all over the world to fight us and we will be sending more innocent soldiers to fight zombies over there.
You can't fight Ideologism with Ideologism. They will keep comming because they don't care about giving their life they love doing so and are so passionate of being killed because they believe they are going to heaven being killed defending their religion. We care about a soldier loosing it's life.
You have to kill every single extremist in the middle east to win that war which is not possible. Al-queda is weaken already and that should be the only goal of the army in response to 9/11 and we should be working on cover operations with other countries help to kill al quaeda leaders all over the world period.
I SAID PULL OUT OF AFGHANISTAN NOW.

If we decide to goto war, we should start the draft and start a war tax. I find it amazing that people are so gun ho to send other people kids and someone else's money to fight a war. Instead of 40k, sent a half a million. 1 million. What ever it takes to "win" (Whatever winning is). If we, as a people, are not willing to sacrifice to do this, then we should pull out. It isn't the job of the US to recreate the world in our image. We could be just as good at disrupting terrorist activity in the region by policy and special ops.

If it were up to me, I would get out. We can't afford the way we are fighting this war. But, if we choose to stay, then lets get serious about what we are doing there and how we are paying for. Any choice in the middle will just waste lives and money.

The REAL story about the House health care vote is NOT the sole Repub cross over vote (by a weak rep in a strong Dem district), but rather the MANY Dem votes AGAINST Pelosi and Obama. Let's get some real investigative reporting as to why all these Dems abandoned their leaders and went AGAINST this horrible bill.

And while Obama fixates on this low priority health care bill and dithers on Afghanistan, brave soldiers continue to die...

The Russians are the last people to be getting advice from. No matter how well intentioned Gorbachev seems to be. They had no business invading Afghanistan. It was not their country. They still hold an empire today. One that will blow up against them one of these days.

Obama needs job creation advice, because he is a loser at everything and a lier.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other countries that hate us don't just have one Bin Laden. These countries have millions of them who are willing to give their lifes to Allah. We need to get out of these sick and idiotic wars and bring our troops home. We can not stop this insanity so it's better to put our energy and focus to put our house in order. America needs healing. So lets start healing our wounds by taking care of our people instead of creating wars that only kill people and make money for a few BLUE BLOODS who have share one ounce of blood for our beautiful nation. WE THE PEOPLE NEED to let president Obama know that we want peace and not war anymore.

I agree with former President Gorbachev. He certainly has the experience to know what he is talking about, and I believe the Administration should listen to the increasing voices of reason telling us to withdraw our troops from Afghanistan as soon as practicable.

It took the Soviets 10 years and 17,000 dead to finally see the light and leave. Looks like the Pentagon is just as blind as the Kremlin.

Gorbachev is so right. We need to get out of Afghanistan completely and mind our own business. Spend money at home for the poor, hungry and rebulid our econonmy. We are spending so much money which we are borrowing and paying huge interests. Obama should not listen to these war mongers.

10.2% unemployment and we are having health care crammed down our throats.

This is the kind of sharing of political opinions between current and past world leaders which is needed. It is important for current and past presidents to share their opinions with each other and take each others experience into consideration when making decisions which have a major effect on other countries. It is encouraging that President Gorbachev feels comfortable sharing his ideas with us and we should let him know we appreciate him.

Mr. President listen to the voice of experience and bring our troops home.

I agree that the former USSR's actions need to be examined given they were in a very similar circumstance. However, how did those actions turn out? Afghanistan became a breeding ground of hate towards America. So, is Mr. Gorbachev suggesting we turn the Taliban on Russia so that they will no longer be a problem to us?

I think we need both. More troops and more domestic development.

I think Obama is looking at all the options and getting all the info he can. Once he makes his decision, we can be sure it is an educated one (unlike the decisions of the previous president.)

Good advice, spoken from experience which President Obama should heed.

No more troops. No more wars for the USA!! Fix our own country and healthcare, employment etc., economy first.

that will leave Al Qaeda with total freedom to launch another 9/11 attack....

better get your Humvee now to drive your kids to school and a flak jacket for yourself to go to work....

Far more reasoned and informed an approach than that suggested by Cheney. Unfortunately, Americans will never accept a "defeat" until there's a major slaughter of American troops. Sad.

Good advice, although some "wingnut" will think those who agree with this man are Communists. We should learn from their experience, and we kind of have a mirror experience going on now.

To be respected around the globe (and today we're not, and WWII was a long time ago in another place, another time) the worlds developing nations are looking for an enlightened society as a model in moving their part of the world into the present. We went to Afghanistan to punish Al Qaeda's leadership and remove the terrorist training bases. The Afghanistan war has mutated into a drain that's doing just that, draining men, women, and families on all sides. Maybe we need to have Afghan's building real roads and rails for trains, communication systems, and the infrastructure that makes a place fit to live and advance. When these people see the true benefits to their families young, and old with hospitals, and schools, the Taliban will loose their purpose when their members begin living a real life worth working for, and they have a new purpose.

Just as the Afghan war brought the former Soviet Union to bankruptcy and it's knees (sorry Reagan lovers, it was not the USA bullying) so for a $3.49 box cutter and a few flying lessons, the terrorist have also succeeded the same with the United States. They of course waited until the American people elected a President who was a dumb as a box of rocks, because they knew what his response would be. Spend trillions of dollars and kill thousands of American troops in the process of chasing shadows on the wall. This is a man we should listen to.

Its time to admit that Bush and his buddiens made to much of mess in Afghanistan to ever fix it. I for once am not willing to sacrifice any more American soldiers for a MISTAKE done by Bush and the rest of his ill gotten clan.

Afghanistan is called "The Cemetery of Empires" for good reason!

I would wager good money that the President and his advisors have already been down this road in their talks. There is a very good reason the President has not committed to a specific plan of action yet. He is wise and thoughtful leader who has inherited a war that should have ended 7 years ago, but still drags on. The reason it stilol drags on is because the nit wits who came before never took the time to sit down and figure out what to do. they just muddled along hoping itwould resolve itself. Now we have responsible adult leadership again. Than God for that. If I were armed services I would be breathing a sigh of relief that I would not be forced to risk my life and disrupt my family based on the whim of a moron, but rather in a well t hought out campaign to forward our nations interests and to bring our values to the fight.

I really hope Mr. Obama does not take this advice. Could you imagine? Taking the advice of a former communist leader. It would be political suicide if such was the case. Instead Mr. Obama should send every able bodied American (willing or not) into Afghanistan and finally put an end to this war.

The idea is to win the war, it's getting ridiculous how long the troops have been there. The poor people of Afghanistan deserve better treatment than this. Go in guns'a'blazin, with all the manpower possible and you'll have who you want in a couple weeks. I realize this isn't the most "profitable" war tactic but really we're just setting up another country/culture/religion to raise their children to hate Americans. I don't know about you but I'm sick of being hated throughout the world.

40,000 more troops to Afghanistan should be considered as "Pawns"in this stupid game. I agree, why spend any more American GI's and to who's value? Tme to withdraw, We will be Lives and Dollars ahead. Look at G.W. and all his Cronies; Retired, Pensioned, with No Worries !

if we had a president with experience and a solid background for governance, these comments by gorbachev could be taken lightly and then ignored. but with obama in the white house, there is reason to be concerned that he will take seriously gorbachev's remarks and actually consider them as serious advice.

Well I suppose if he's going to listen to anyone, it would be a devout communist.

If you ever want to progress to tomorrows world we must find a new way of reconciling, war doesn't solve problems but only prolongs them and makes them more complicated. What's need it humanitarian aide, tolerance and education...it's the only means to the end and it will take decades, but it's the only solution we have.

I think Gorbachev is correct. Those folks do not want us there and we are not accomplishing anything but getting more of our people killed. The goal was to catch Bin Laden, but since we have no clue where he is or how to get to him , so let's get out. All the years we have been there and absolutely nothing we do will bring about a sucessful mission.

I'm with Hillary when she said the Pakistan people know where Bin Laden is but they have no incentive to tell the US where he is and they aren't going to do it.

We should only be in countries fighting wars that have attacked us and not invade other countries that have not asked us for help. We say we are not the world police, but we sure act like it.

US should be planning on how to pull out troops from there not sending more troops, send funding and intelligence and involve other powerful economies like china ,japan etc millitariy... if obama send troops the republicans will have a good case against him come election time. NATO, European Union? can contribute more, US budget is in deficit , Increase boarder security intelligence and equipments period. Save the souls of our faithful solders please.

But if Gorbachev's methodology works so well, why did Afghanistan fall into disarray AGAIN? We need more troops in my opinion because otherwise, the terrorists are likely to reconquer lost ground - and rather quickly, I might add. We need it fully stabilized, without exception. War sucks, but it's a necessary evil, especially during a time of such rampant international terrorism. I'm with Gen. Stanley McChrystal all the way.

If he listens to no one else this is a man he should. He has been where President Obama is and where he is going concerning this Afghan situation.

I'm sure the communist would like to see Obama do well and stay in power.

"They withdrew a decade later after facing stiff resistance from Afghan fighters, who were backed by the United States and Pakistan."

Now American troops are fighting the same Afghan fighters whom we trained just a couple of decades ago.

Now we are training people in Pakistan to fight Taliban, two decades from now, our children will be fighting those people whom we are training today. And the cycle continues.

Right advice. Obama needs to put his Nobel Peace Prize at work.

Even most of our military experts are telling us that it will be a major mistake to stay. Ten years from now it will not be resolved. This will run longer than that other ugly mistake in southeast Asia. Both of Bush's wars have destabilized the entire middle east.

The original goal of the Afghan mission was to remove the Taliban from power and to deny Al Qaeda safe havens. Somewhere along the way, we allowed the neo-ceonservatives in George Bush's administration to change the mission to one of bringing political, and social liberalism to an otherwise very conservative country.Tthat was a strategic blunder which has had serious geo-political implications. As a fellow liberal, I understand where the neo-cons are coming from, however Idealism need not be in conflict with reality! We can never liberalize this stone age society, our best hope is as Mr Gorbachev advises: bring the clans together, encourage economic development, and negotiate with the moderate Taliban, convincing them to abandon terror and offer them a place in the government.

So, let's see how this will pan out. We he listen to General McChrystal or Gorbachev? Undoubtedly a tough decision for him.

I really wish that Pres. Obama does not send any more troops to Afghanistan.

Since we can't "Tear Down Those Mountains" we may as well bring
our troops Home.

Remember, the Soviets still want to be the dominant power in Central Asia and certainly would welcome us leaving a vacuum for them to fill. Would you trust his advice?

Obama will continue to "study" his options until someone else makes the decision for him. That is the Obama method of governing.

Is he kidding? The Soviets failed miserably. Why would we take advice from them? Perhaps more troops would make a difference but the problem is this: where will we find those troops. Thanks to the mindless decision to divert resources to Iraq and stubborn refusal to initiate the Draft, our soldiers have served 3 to 4 tours each. They need relief forces but none are available. We need more recruits but I don't see long lines of patriotic Americans volunteering.

The longer Obama stalls, the more American soldiers get killed. Shame on Obama!!!

Yeah, great...and just how did that whole Afghanistan thingie work out for you, Gorby?

Get lost...

If Obama is smart, he will listen to Gorbachev. How many more Thousands of people have to get killed trying to build a Western idea in the middle of a two thousand year old culture that hates everything we stand for!
Besides the fact that we can not spend another Trillion of Chinese backing that future generations will get stuck with..

It could be Obama’s biggest mistake to continue, and derail all of the Great "Change" plans ,and reelection.

I agree with Mister Gorbachev, we need to get out of there, there are no benefits in keeping our troops in Afganistan.

We Americans are not smart enough to learn from the experience of others.

Listen to him, Mr. President. This is not a war we can win, and we can not afford more lives – or more money – in a never ending conflict. Bring our troops home and use our resources to protect our homeland from within.

I say get out. Go after terrorists only and GET OUT! What purpose would it serve to stay?

It has been seven years and all we have to show for it is another quagmire. We can't build a miltary infrastructure because we are seen as occupiers, and we can't build a strong central government where there never has been one and the people don't want it and don't trust it anyway - nor should they. We can control the terrorism from bases in or near their base camps. We're still talking about a stateless bunch of hillbillies, after all, not a credible armed force with serious weapons. We need to stop pouring money into that land that time forgot and rebuild our own precarious economy.

From one socialist to another.

Cheney's advice is to lie to the people and when the facts don't fit, change the facts.

Great advice I hope Obama takes it.

CNN! Stop passing the buck/book. You elected a Muslim, as your?????
Now you state the people at Fort Hood should have acted sooner.

Your either Stupid, as Obama said a couple of times. Or your hypochyrits...

This is ubelievable, The Soviets were pushing domestic reconciliation?? Revisionist history indeed. I guess if you call carpet bombing, domestic reconciliation then OK

Isn't it questionalbe when the Russian leader we helped Afghanistan fight against offers our president advise? Of course, Obama is not the least bit suspect of Putin nor seems to be aware of the changes within Russia over the past several years to the Russia of "old". Let's be buddies and let down the guard. History always does repeat itself and will again. God help the world with Obama as our leader.

This is Bush's unfinished war. The concern should be whether it would be worth the fight to stay there. Would it translate to the overthrow of terrorists?

Maybe it would be OK with the wingnuts if we attacked another country, like Grenada, if we decided to withdraw from Afghanistan.

This is what they call wriinging your HANDS! As they put you through wringer, feet first.

Now you realy do need Obama, He has done just about everything Backwardfs, as He Flip/Flops along..

Well this advice is going to anger the draft dodging war mongers on the extreme right.