One official said the troops could be out by summer, but no final decision has been made. “Actually,” said the official, “we’re hoping he just forgets he said it.”
What does Putin want in Afghanistan?
Don’t miss the forest for the trees. This is Trump’s segue to privatizing military combat ops.
Afghanistan is a lost war, but “half sounds like a good number” is the underlying theory of the case. Maybe 40% would be better? Maybe 60% would be better? Maybe June would be better, or August would be better? Nah. It doesn’t go that deep.
Donnie has become the ReTreater-in-Chief…
A broken clock is right twice a day, I guess this is one of those times. There’s nothing we can do in Afghanistan that wouldn’t be washed away the minute we leave and we can’t afford to stay forever. This land is ungovernable, Alexander, the Russians and now us. Get out.
Is Donnie telegraphing a military move in advance? I wonder who he criticized for that in the past. And he’s doing it during sensitive negotiations with the Taliban.
I thought President Obama promised to win the war in Afghanistan?
Didn’t he have 8 years to do it?
Candidate Obama in 2008, “As president, I will make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be. This is a war that we have to win.”
Exactly, the only mistake I see here is is withdrawing just half. Whatever has not being achieved in 17 years, is not going to be achieved ever. The military likes Afghanistan because of combat pay (150K tax free for a junior officer) and the contractors are doing ever better. Afghans are perfectly capable of killing each other without foreign help.
Strumpie must have watched The Princess Bride.
If only he wasn’t a teetotaler when it comes to drinking a glass of wine.
Who knows? Afghanistan has no port on the Gulf of Oman. It would mean being closer to Iran, but then there’s the Taliban. Putin has to be worried about a Muslim uprising on Russia’s southern border. Would he cast aside all “stans”?
But he’ll fight for Ivankastan til the bitter end…
Dear Georgeh my friend who won the last war of ideology? Was it China? But China today is not the China of Mao.
Yeah, money is really the issue, and pouring our money into a foreign nation while our infrastructure is falling apart makes no sense.
Trumps motivations aside (whatever they may be), we should be somewhat mollified that we are debating the wisdom of removing troops as opposed to sending additional ones.
Actually that didn’t come out right. I am glad Trump’s motivations (whatever they may be) are resulting in withdrawal rather than further engagement. Biggest worry for me has always been what new military entanglement he might get us involved in.
Pretty clear who won:
“Take the wealth of the eight richest people on the planet and combine it. Now do the same for the poorest 3.5 billion. The two sums are the same, £350 billion. Correct: just eight people own as much wealth as half of the world’s population.”
The only war is still a class war. Who has won that?
And this relates to Afghanistan, leaving Afghanistan, or even the Taliban how?
I do not refute your current post but why bring this up in this discussion?
For some reason you decided to bring up China and “who won the last war of ideology?” I was responding to that comment:
I don’t know what China and Mao have to do with Afghanistan, but I was pointing out that the “war of ideology” is a distraction from the international class war, and there it is easy to see who the winners are.
That’s all.
Oh, I got the answer! Trump is bringing the troops home so they can get some R & R before the greatest war evah, with the final climactic episode called Armageddon, and brought to the world by Trump and his other puppetmasters, the administration’s Evangelical cabal. It’s a lock to get the biggest ratings evah!