'I don't want any officers' Trump meetings with enlisted troops to discuss war in Afghanistan

'I don't want any officers' — Trump held private meetings with enlisted troops to candidly discuss the war in Afghanistan

https://taskandpurpose.com/trump-enlisted-troops-afghanistan

Trump in 2017:

This story shows us a sign of what kind of leader the President really is. This is the stuff a strong leader does. He listen to the soldiers on the ground, doing the actual fighting.

 

I agree you have to get the voice of the soldiers. But it is incorrect to claim good leadership would only listen to them and ignore leadership at the same time.

 

My company does this. Every now and then a VP will show up and want to speak with the techs with no other members of management around. The first few times I was nervous because my unionized guys are experts at whining and complaining, but a smart VP can filter out the BS and get to the core of things. Trump is doing the same thing and he did this when he was building sky scrapers - he'd talk to the guys doing the work and get their input. Trump is a leader.

 

Its nice to have a POTUS who listens to his military men and women.

 

No one suggested or said "would only", that's you.

 

I'm curious as to the differing stories that Trump got from the officers and enlisted.

 

It was definitely implied by the OP. Not everything is about Donald Trump. My disagreement was with the OP’s description not the Presidents actions. The need to defend every little perceived slight of the President gets old.

 

Trust me, the differences are staggering. Maybe not so much now that the ROE’s are more infantry friendly compared to Obama’s suicidal ROE’s, but still, what ground troops endure in door to door sweeps is completely different from what the politically correct top brass wants America to know.

 

Politics is the key word. Once in the upper echelons of the officer corp it is totally political.

 

What a load of rubbish. The OP said he met with the military brass the very next day. Meeting with the enlisted men first made good sense.

If Trump waved a magic wand and took away the angst of the haters and made them all rich and comfortable they would still find something to criticise and complain about.

This IS about Donald Trump and what did was good and sensible!

 

Again there was not a single dig at Trump. I do enjoy how quick the cult defenders jump to his defense.

 

Oh so your posts were actually supportive of the actions taken in the OP? Pardon me for not realizing that from your words.

 

Did you read the article?

 

When I was with Directv, the CEO that was on Undercover Boss started the TAC, or Technician Advisory Counsel, to meet annually bringing ideas from the field to corporate. They would fly the members out to Vegas for a week of meetings and parties.

 

"Um yeah, so the other day I caught a guy planting a bomb in the middle of the road. I approached him, he pointed a gun at me, then turn and ran. My LT said that that isn't enough to open fire. Is that true?"

 

Generals say expand the war, enlisted say the war will never be won because the Generals are all politicians who dont really care if we win or lose they just want to get promoted.

 

In 2004-05 my unit, 1/9 Cav, was on the ground in the Sheik Maruff area of Baghdad, around Haifa st. We had some very unique ROE. The three P's were polite, professional, prepared to kill. That was one they pushed on us. Another one was shout show shove shoot. Those were down from division. At the company level we had orders that if we took one grenade we throw or shoot two back. At the squad level we had some of our own rules that would take too much effort to describe in this setting.

I will say this though. I had an opportunity to speak to our CO on one occasion and told him we needed to go into sector and stay there because the intel was saying that whenever we go back to the FOB, AQ was taking over the streets. He ignored me. But ironically, that was what the US ended up doing in the surge effort the next year. I was already back home and a civilian by then.

 

I don't know what this is from, but in 2004-05 we would not have asked for permission. That was never on our rules. I was never once told I had to get permission to fire.

 

My response had nothing to do with Trump or his meeting. WTF do you feel the need to jump to his defense when he isn’t even being attacked. Good god man.

 

Expand the war how? I don't even think they are arguing that, I mean, it seems they want to maintain the status quo for some undefined purpose.

 

The problem with leadership(Pentagon) is that they are literally so removed from the combat situation that they're unable to make the calls themselves. This is why we got into Vietnam, this is how Iraq happened, how Afghanistan happened and how Syria happened.

We're led by imbeciles at the Pentagon, and anyone who can't see that 30 year incompetence is either blind or indifferent to the strategic blunders that often get our men and women killed. Luckily, the 'enemy' is such that they can't harm the homeland. But I always fear our 'dear leaders' in the Pentagon and the New American Century neocons will take a bite that's too big for us to swallow.

 

Trump did a novel thing by addressing the enlisted personally.. I'm sure he gets a fair share of officers input without scheduling private gatherings like he did with the guys in the trench's.. No matter what he does the leftist, rino's and leftist pretenders are always going to use what he does good or bad to make hay, its the drama way

 

I would say it's because you are always so quick to find fault and nitpick..

 

Calm down Yulee, please. I didn't jump to Trump's defense, as if I needed to. I asked if you read the article because, to answer your original question, it says Trump also met with Generals.

 

This is how Trump probably handles his hotels and how most excellent CEOs deal with their people. You go and meet with guys cleaning the toilets or fixing the leaks and ask them how things are going. Then you talk with the managers, ect. This is all happening on a perennial loop working your way up and down the line. And when you have information from every strata of your corporation you really know what’s going on. Getting all your info from the top down will NEVER reveal the true inner working of your corporation.

It’s business 101 folks. It’s the right way. It’s why CEOs at some tech companies often don’t know what the **** is really going on since all they do is get their info from yes men directly below them. They’re trapped in a bubble.