President* Trump put forward on Monday a long-awaited strategy for resolving the nearly 16-year-old conflict in Afghanistan, but he declined to specify either the number of troops that would be committed, or the conditions by which he would judge the success of their mission there."Trump's plan" makes the war his war.
In a nationally televised prime-time speech to troops at Fort Myer, Va., Mr. Trump said there would be no “blank check” for the American engagement in Afghanistan. But in announcing his plan, Mr. Trump deepened American involvement in a military mission that has bedeviled his predecessors and that he once called futile.
Smoke, mirrors and few, if any ideas. "Kill the enemy." Doing that without trying to minimize civilian casualties is a fairly terrible idea. "Rein in corruption in Afghanistan".... might as well go order the tide to reverse itself. The only Afghan regime since 1979 that was able to make inroads against governmental corruption was the Taliban, because they did it by the simple expedient of bribe-takers got shot.
Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. It has been for a very long time.
And, to be blunt about it, the idea that Trump is going to come out against corruption is laughable.
9 comments:
Near as I can tell, there is no plan.
Shhhhh... it's secret.
yep, like trying to fix Africa. It simply cannot be done. Afghanistan is pretty much just a write off if you try to do it in a "civilized" manner. Pakistan is an issue as well. They won't react like Europeans or Latins. And to expect them to is foolish.
And don't forget that Afghanistan is really two different groups of people. The plains folks really should be part of Iran, and mountain people are part of nothing, but closer to the folks on the other side of the mountains in Paahkeestaaahhn.
I don't think that you can make them part of what we would call a "civilized" country.
I'm looking at his "civilized" country right now and not sure that's what they should aspire to.
So the biggest takeaway is that he insulted Pakistan and encouraged India? Does he know that India is about to go to war with China? Does he know that China is already building infrastructure in Afghanistan to get at the minerals he wants to steal?
The second biggest takeaway is that the generals he's surrounded himself with were able to talk him out of one of his most consistent campaign promises.
And you're right, he owns it now, so don't look at us getting out of there while he's in office. Presidents don't like to lose wars, and have been known to do some really stupid shit to avoid the end coming up on their watch.
-Doug in Oakland
Ah, but look at it this way:
His name will go in the history books along with Alexander the Great and the British Empire
Saw someone's tweet that said: "They told me that if I voted for Clinton that we'd be in Afghanistan forever."
If gauleiter Bannon was still around he could have had a pop-up picture book made that president trump could skim showing Afghanistan to be 'the graveyard of armies', and that the USA has no strategic, tactical, military or civilian purpose in continuing the war. I suppose trump's brain, Herr Bannon, wants to preserve the US military for the coming (in Bannon's mind) helter skelter Charlie Manson style racial civil war he so yearns for and acts effectively daily to bring about. It won't happen but racist violence is already ramping up in response to the president's seeming approval of violent Nazis and KKK.
Empires Tod, The Graveyard of Empires. Every empire that has tried, from the Soviets to the Brits to Mongols, Greeks and Persians, every empire that has tried within a generation was no longer an "empire".
I wish him luck-because lets face it, things getting worse over there wouldn't be good for anyone, not to mention more dead on all sides. I think anyone would need more than luck to fix this though. Divine intervention maybe.
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