[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
politics and politicians Title: Remember that Time Trump Said "Get Out of Afghanistan"? Neither Does He. The president's latest flip-flop is total and appalling. Will it finally alienate his base?As Matt Welch and Ed Krayewski have noted, President Donald Trump's plans for a United States military presence in Afghanistan aren't just secretive and undefined. They represent a total reversal of earlier statements condemning America's longest war for its utter lack of effectiveness and unconscionable loss of life and gigantic waste of money. To date, over 2,400 U.S. military have died in the war in Afghanistan and estimates of the cost run between $840 billion and $2 trillion. "Let's get with it," Citizen Trump said in 2012 at a video blog he used to promote The Apprentice. "Get out of Afghanistan. We've wasted billions and billions of dollars and, more important, thousands and thousands of lives—not to mention all of these young men and women who come home and they really have problems."
Whether you agree with Antiwar.com's Eric Garris (who dug up the video above) that "the War Party got to him" once he became president or believe that he was never really a non-interventionist, the switch in positions is stunning. Here's a 2013 tweet:
In October 2015, he declared that occupying Afghanistan was a "terrible mistake" but he took it all back last night, saying
While Trump explicitly ruled out "nation building," it's unclear what sort of strategy follows from his adamant refusal to beat a "rapid exit" or "hasty withdrawal." Indeed, he seems to be laying the groundwork for a permanent presence. As troubling as that is his characterization of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, which was negotiated by George W. Bush and implemented by the Obama administration only after attempts to extend our military presence were rebuffed by the Iraqi government we helped install. The collapse of Iraq after the U.S. exit is a sure sign that the war effort there was a fool's errand, not an argument for our staying there longer. The president did not lay out any clear markers or guideposts that might conceivable trigger the removal of American troops from Afghanistan. Rather, he stressed an ongoing need for the U.S. military to "stop the resurgence of safe havens" for terrorists everywhere in the world and the need to keep terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons. Both of those goals suggest not just a permanent presence in Afghanistan but elsewhere throughout the world. Trump also dished up a familiar mix of self-pity, humblebragging, and good, old-fashioned bullshit to explain (sort of) his strategy in Afghanistan:
Go here for full text and video of Trump's remarks. Reading through the speech, it's hard not to conclude, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) did in a statement, that the president "knows this war is over" but that he simply doesn't "have the guts to end it for real, on his watch." Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Indeed, he seems to be laying the groundwork for a permanent presence. Why not? We still have 35,000 troops in Germany and 40,000 troops in Japan ... 70 years after those wars. We still have 25,000 troops in South Korea 60 years after that war. For comparison, we have 8,500 troops in Afghanistan.
#2. To: Deckard (#0) I bet reason.com had a similar negative article ready to print if Trump pulled out.
#3. To: Deckard (#0) the president "knows this war is over" but that he simply doesn't "have the guts to end it for real, on his watch I think that is a simplification, perhaps a general has reminded him of the massacre when the British attempted to withdraw from Afghanistan, that would be even more unacceptable. Yes Afghanistan should be garrisoned by a larger contingent but all that does is paint a larger target, those other places where the US is garrisoned have been pacified, and those garrisons are a cold war hang over and a bulwark against aggression. It would not take guts it would take stupidity, the sort of stupidity that BO exercised when he pulled back from Iraq, What it proved is you cannot trade off one objective against another or both will bite you in the bum
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest |
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|