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West will fail, says ex-CIA operative

West will fail, says ex-CIA operative: "AS PESSIMISM grows in the US about Iraq, the American commander there has warned that the war will take many years to win and a former top CIA officer has told a Sydney conference that defeat is inevitable in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael Scheuer, who headed the CIA's bin Laden unit until 2004, said the West was losing the global battle against Muslim insurgents.

Mr Scheuer said the US and its allies had failed to commit enough troops to win and did not understand the grievances motivating Muslim insurgents.

'We in the West are fighting an enemy we have woefully chosen to misunderstand and to whom we are losing hands down and on every front,' he said."

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