Echoes of the Cold War - Gorbachev on Afghanistan

BBC News: Reports that the former President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev has stated the West cant win in Afghanistan and that President Obama is right to start to withdraw troops in 2011. On whole this blog respects the opinions of President Gorbachev, without him and Ronald Reagan the Cold War could still be on, but on this subject the President is wrong, the War in Afghanistan in 2010 is not the War in Afghanistan of the 1980s. The one major difference is that Pakistan is a nuclear armed power, if Afghanistan falls to the Taliban again, then the Taliban of Pakistan will have a base to attack the Government of Pakistan. A Taliban Regime with a nuclear armed missile can not be tolerated, it would place the World on the threat of a nuclear war, thus Afghanistan is not the point, yes the War in Afghanistan has echoes of the Vietnam War, corrupt Government, a terrorist insurgency that his being funded by Iran, in the case of the Viet Cong by North Vietnam, but Afghanistan is not the prize its Pakistan. All means have to used to keep Pakistan stable, it can be argued that President Gorbachev is fighting the War of the Past.