President Trump's Speech on Afghanistan (tonight 9pm Eastern)

As a former infantryman and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom II, I approve of the President's message tonight.

 

Not sure but when started talking about universal cohesion across the military I was like, "Oh, no's" and by the time he got to clearly defined and crushing in the same breath, it was "gotta go"

 

changing ROE is not just tinkering around the edge

 

When running for office Trump said his foreign policy would be based on the principle of "America first". I don't how Trump has made a case that sending more troops to Afghanistan implements an America first policy. I voted for Trump and did get a good SCOTUS appointment for my vote. However, at this point I don't think any of the things Trump promised such as a wall on our SouthWest border are going to happen. Trump has been reined in by the behind the scenes oligarchy that are running this country.

 

We once had the War of Jenkins Ear. Well we now have the War of the Orange Dildo.
Boy Trump you now own the Afghan war.

 

Nor is "...?..we're not nation building. We are killing terrorist......"

 

That is a difficult situation to say the least. Pak is nuclear as you know, and we provide them with substantial money to secure that.Trump needs to somehow get the Paks to agree to US troops crossing the border.

 

TBF, no troop numbers were discussed. In fact, he stated that the Afghan army will bear the brunt.

 

his speech writer did a good job, agree with most of what he said, but of course we have to wait to see what he is really thinking as time goes on as we have seen many times him read a speech and do well only to tweet what he really thinks later

 

It was a good speech but in the end it fell short. He didn't outline the milestones that needed met.


The good parts:
- He attacked Pakistan harshly. I loved it. They are at the top of the list of havens for terrorists.
- No more nation building. I see that falls in line with his comments about no longer behind the 2 state solution with Israel and Palestine.
- He admitted his first impressions were wrong. That more info and more perspective made him change his mind. It's always refreshing to hear someone admit their mistake and why.

 

actually it was discussed, just he wont give number of what the increase will be, I agree with that, numbers should only be given if the military decides to releases it as propaganda, it should not always be released

and I 100% agree no more nation building overseas, we need it here

and also 100% agree, India is stealing out jobs, they should fund a bigger part of the costs of our war

 

He gave a good speech. What he proposed sounded practical, pragmatic -- like the kind of approach I would personally want to implement. I do like the idea of staying there to finish what we started, so to speak, and especially to avoid having it become a haven for terrorists once again. I just hope that Trump's words translate into action as effective as those words promise. I agree, for instance, with not having D.C. micro-manage the war, and I agree with allowing the commanders and troops the leeway they need to respond to the situation and freaking win. If that works, Trump will have successfully kept a campaign promise, and everyone will be better off for it.

And I really want to see all of these terror networks shut down so that there are no more awful attacks on innocent people. That is what we set out to do post-9/11, and I think we should take the correct actions to achieve that. 0bama terribly mismanaged our military and turned what should have been successful operations into a needless stalemate as well as a big drag on our economy and morale.

 

Well, I imagine he did not want to give away too much info in advance. I know he reiterated that point. Perhaps outlining milestones would have been problematic in some way. I like the idea of keeping the enemy as much in the dark and uncertain as possible.

 

My son was planning on being a career Army man until he went to the ME and experienced the ROE. They frustrated him terribly, to say the least.

 

Yes, in the infantry we have a cliche, "silent, violent, silent"

 

I understand that. When I was in Iraq in 04-05, we had a ROE of polite, professional, and prepared to kill.

 

Not getting out of Afghanistan will be damaging to his base.

 

I thought it was a good speech.

The government of Afghanistan is not strong enough to fight off the taliban by itself. If we completely withdrew from Afghanistan, we would be effectively giving the country back to the taliban, and they would take it. The taliban is still closely allied with Al Qaeda. Those ties run deep. A return of taliban rule would be a return of the country to Al Qaeda as a safe haven. I do not see that as a winning strategy. That is losing. In fact, that is losing when we don't have to lose. The honest truth is, that against US troops, the taliban is not a strong enemy. Persistent, yes. Strong, no. In 16 years of war, they have only managed to kill about 1860 US troops. And while we mourn the loss of each one of them, this amounts to a military failure on the part of the taliban. In the process of killing those troops, they have lost literally tens of thousands of fighters and leaders.

Trump is right to draw a parallel to the withdrawal from Iraq and the consequences that followed.

As much as I don't want our nation fighting unnecessary wars, or supporting wars that are none of our business, I do want us to show resolve against our real enemies. We only endanger our people by showing weakness.

My two cents ...

 

The birther-in-chief previously said...while Obama was POTUS..
"the US was 'wasting lives and money' in the country"

Pack it up and get the USA the **** out of Afghanistan Donald Dump or send your kids there to fight for whatever the stinkin' cause is.

 

LOL Obama did that. How'd that work out for him.

 

I listened.
I wish he had stayed with his intuition and not the brainwashing he's had.
Same War. Different terms. Not Nation Building. Terrorist fighting.
And after so much blood, bone, lives and money wasted, it will be the same as if we got out now.
Like Vietnam 1967 and not getting out for some 6 years with the same result as predicted if we got out in '67.

Works for Afghanistan too.
Except there ain't no draft.



We dearly need the draft to make people concerned about,
"Not At War, Wars"​

 

I'll sum it up:
F L I P F L O P

 

Don't often agree with you, But your post I completely agree with...

 

The speech sounded good until you analyzed it.

He started out good talking about the troops and all. The you recall how he wants to kick the gays and trannies out. So he was faking that part.

He talked out prevailing in past wars but then you remember that we lost a couple and got countless people killed for no reason. And that's happening right now in Afghanistan.

He went off on Pakistan so now we will be fighting North Korea & Pakistan & Iran & China & Russia.

He wants the Afghans to step up and do more but if they don't we will get in a snit and leave.

He wants to kill the ISIS & Taliban & A.Q. terrorists but says that we could reach an agreement with the Taliban. So before the troops kill any of the terrorists that have to do identity checks and see if they are on the really naughty list or on the protected terrorist list.

The point is that regardless of what we do we will never, ever, win because we don't have the will or the guts to exterminate everyone that supplies the terrorists. So it serves no useful purpose to stay another hour. Simply leave now. Dedicate a missile sub to vaporize the area if they start some crap and make a deal with the Taliban for them to supply the opium to the CIA and everyone will be better off.

 

I was in Asscrackistan in 03-04. We constantly got in trouble from the Army for violating ROE. In the end our CO was retired and 3 pilots lost their wings over it. Likely saved dozens of lives in the process though.