1 of 1- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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America's Longest War to Get Longer
Trump reverses course on his "America First" strategy
Five key pieces of Trump's Afghanistan plan
The President is giving the Pentagon authority to ramp up troop levels in Afghanistan by several thousand, but Trump declared the US military would not talk specifically about troop levels there.
"We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities," Trump said. "Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on. America's enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out."
The US currently has about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan, and US military generals have said that a few thousand more troops would help the US break the current stalemate against the Taliban.
The additional troops would serve in two roles: counterterrorism missions and training the Afghan forces.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- Just Fred
- Duke of Cortona
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Re: America's Longest War to Get Longer
How is this different from what we've been doing for the last 16 years? I see this as a 'kick it down the road' for the next person to deal with it.
- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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Re: America's Longest War to Get Longer
I'm deeply saddened this morning.
Trump was going to get us out of Afghanistan.
Before him Obama promised to get us out of Afghanistan.
There were surges.
Now there will be more surges.
The outcome will be the same. Only the cost, in human suffering and money will change.
There is no military victory there.
The waste.
The waste.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Thread Starter- Rongone
- Sentient Being
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Re: America's Longest War to Get Longer
From my perspective, that was no 'plan' for Afghanistan Trump presented in that speech. It was merely an opportunity for our president to stand in front of a bunch of cameras, uniformed troops, his cabinet & advisers, and read words (written by someone else) from a TelePrompTer and try to appear as a rational, thoughtful, man of action to protect us from terrorists. There were no specifics . . . he used his old "I'm not going to telegraph our actions to our enemies" as an excuse for no substance behind his words. The whole prime time sideshow was designed to offset Trump's incompetence that he has recently demonstrated regarding domestic terrorism by white supremacists (that he seems to want to excuse because they are part of his base supporters).
What he presented was not a 'plan' . . . It was nothing but a Granfalloon.
Stand by for at least 3-1/2 more years of American troops (no Jared, Don, jr., or Eric though) in harm's way in the graveyard of empires that is Afghanistan.
- tennyson
- Exchanger
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Re: America's Longest War to Get Longer
He kept saying we will "win" without defining how we know when we have won.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
- Just Fred
- Duke of Cortona
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Re: America's Longest War to Get Longer
The French said it perfectly: "Afghanistan is where empires go to die."
- Goose
- Cogito ergo sum
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Re: America's Longest War to Get Longer
More of the same, with no end in sight.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Thread Starter