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

I thought only Cap'n Jack Rag was doing that. Kudos!

 

I seem to recall a similar change in approach after Petraeus took over in Iraq, but I think you might have a better insight into that.

Excellent point.

Thanks - I got it from a libertarian organization that I do some work for:

https://www.studentsforliberty.org/2017/07/26/students-get-fired-fall-freedomfest/

Great organization, great young Americans...

 

Not allowing the talban to overrun all of afghanistan and turn it into a terrorist state would be good for America

 

ie continuing the same strategy as Obama and when will that goal be reached so troops can come home - ie what conditions are ticked leading to withdraw? BTW Before Afghanistan was invaded what terrorist attacks had the Taliban committed and since then what terrorist attacks had they committed against the west?

 

Only a fool would accuse someone of hatred for pointing out the history of war between India and Pakistan (as well as the Hindu-Muslim conflict that goes back centuries further). I have an older friend who lived in India during the British Raj - his parents were missionaries - and he told me some horrifying stories about the sectarian violence that took place when the two countries split apart.

I would like to see much more cooperation with India to promote our mutual interests in the region. India is a natural ally and I think Trump will get along better with PM Modi than Obama did. I was somewhat surprised to hear Trump mention India but he was clearly sending out some signals last night that I would have liked to hear years ago.

 

Bush Sr. is smart. He knew there would be NO end game in Iraq. This is what you get for nation building taking out an entire army leaving Iraq defenseless. Now you have an army of peasants who have no idea how to fight.

 

Funny....16 years of nothing done, yet you think all of a sudden Trump will "win" because he commit more young people to die for nothing. The lessons of Vietnam NOT learned.

 

To liberals it may look like the same strategy as obama but the troops on the ground will know the difference

Afghanistan was a host to terrorists like bin laden

If it were me I would accept afghanistan as a backward feudal society that will never be peaceful or civilized and arm all the warlords and encourage them to kill each other

Our military would only intervene if foreign fighters were operating there and were deemed a threat outside afghanistan

 

I have very low expectations for the future of afghanistan

So I don't expect Disneyworld Kabul to ever open

See the post just above for more on the subject

 

There was a lot of very detailed planning that went into 9/11. I imagine it took several years to recruit the hijackers, secure the funding, and get the plan in place. The whole time, they had a safe place and no worries about being attacked or captured.

You are correct, war hurts us as a nation. It degrades capabilities, it degrades morale, and it takes money from other areas.

I very seriously doubt we see another 9/11 style attack. I'm absolutely convinced that we will see another attack on the same scale. Just imagine 20 men detonating suicide vests at 8am in malls all across America on black Friday.

 

I'm surprised anyone tuned in to listen to this blowhard. His speeches are like narcissistic nails on a chalkboard. Did he mention his "landslide" victory or plans to build a golf course in Afghanistan?

 

Yes, that particular part is very Obama-esque, isn't it?

 

Here is why that's a bad thing: BECAUSE ALL OF HIS IDEAS ARE EQUALLY UNINFORMED! Every idea the Trumpster has had is one that is rooted in his abundant "gut" and nothing more - no hard research or analysis to back it up. Whether it's pulling out of Afghanistan, building a border wall, starting a trade war, or getting cozy with Putin - these are all bad ideas that he used to incessantly attack his political opponents for failing to support; yet the problem all along is that his political opponents were informed and had come to reasonable conclusions.

He's the most uninformed and incompetent leader in U.S. history, and this speech proved it. Now many people are blaming his change of mind on the "elitist" DC insiders, but those insiders are just people who understand how the world works. They may have won Trump over this time, but he's to self-absorbed to let it happen often. Whether he goes with his "gut" or allows his informed advisers to talk sense into him, it seems his supporters and opponents can agree on one thing: he never should have been elected.

 

surprised that the 12 year boy did not mention his "landslide"victory and that he did not chant look her up!

 

Who did you vote for?

 

I think we found someone else we need to keep away from baseball fields.

 

You may need to adjust your tinfoil hat.

 

I don't know, we were training the Iraqi army and turning over patrols to them when my unit left in 2005, so it goes back farther than Obama.

 

No, I enlisted because I had bought into the "domino theory" and felt I was halting the spread of communism. I learned that was crap. It wasn't about communism to the Vietnamese, it was about having their own country free of foreigners.
I learned we could win any battle, but we could not win the peace, because the peace (or occupation) meant having the people want us to be there - that was not going to happen when we treated them as inferior, and were ignorant and disdainful of their culture. They wanted to be left alone.
I thought that intelligent people knew Vietnam was a mistake - forgotten when we went into Iraq - and renewed as Iraq became the fiasco it was.
The British and Soviets have failed in Afghanistan before us - and the British had LOTS of experience in foreign lands.

 

Sounds like Ron Kovic without the paraplegia.

I started figuring things out in 1965 as a Junior in High School.
Being in Orange County, California - Newport Beach, I was very alone in my thoughts.
We had to read a book in class by George F. Kennan where he put out the domino theory.
I disagreed with him then. What a jerk. And too many are still bent on this anti-Russian ideology today. There never was one big happy Red Family all united in Communism.

Khrushchev tried to bring perestroika into Soviet - American relations and was rebuffed.
I remember this, do you? I lived in Hollywood at the time and there was tons of live TV.

​

Vietnam was about the Vietnamese desire for independence since Uncle Ho went to Paris to plead that case at the end of WW1. And he was given to the French, and again after WW2. The West had rejected their desires for an independent nation repeatedly at international conferences, so they turn Red.
And the Reds feed their desire for independence. How simple is that.
How badly did not "get it". There was never one big Red family. As soon as Americans were out of SE Asia, Vietnam punched a hole in the Chinese border. Family feud?


Meanwhile we ignore . Then and today.

Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic,
regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us. ​

 

If you were paying any attention from 2008 to 2016 you'd have heard Obama talking about maturing the forces of ME governments to put down the trouble-making groups (like the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Daesh) without relying on the U.S. to do it.

Funny how much Trump criticized Obama's policy on that and then he turns around and adopts it.