Posted on 12/29/2018 9:38:40 AM PST by poconopundit
Obama must have had compliant generals else he and Hillary could not have built up ISIS.
Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution:
The Congress shall have Power To . . . raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
We had dinner with a retired Air Force Colonel and his wife a couple of nights ago. He was saying that it was a mistake to pull our troops out of Syria, but when questioned about this could not give any coherent explanation as to why. The best he could do was to say that his friend who was a bomber pilot who has been dropping ordinance said that it was. Earlier in the conversation he had told us his friend said that he personally had dropped more bombs on Syria than the allies dropped on Germany in all of WWII. This was an obvious wild exaggeration and my comment was that this sounded like a huge waste of funds.
One of the reasons I mention this is because my brother-in-law is a current full bird colonel in the Air Force and he has equally weird ideas about this situation. Military leadership does not always see the big picture and as you say this permanent war situation in the Middle East has colored their perception along with being a huge waste of money. The question is how do we make the area more stable so that businesses and people can thrive and pull themselves out of poverty. The other issue is how to eliminate the bad guys, who can be quite easily defined as Muslim “extremists”. Certainly cozying up to the “Muslim Brotherhood” for 8 years set back the region by decades and means the $5 Trillion we spent since the first gulf war and troops injured and killed, was a complete waste.
Remaining in Syria obligated the US to support Iran per the Obama doctrine passed by Congress. By leaving Syria Trump ends the Iran doctrine and puts the final nail in Obama’s foreign policy casket.
Good point. My first thought is better late than never. However Trump has shown over and over that he has command of discipline and patience. Trump gave those generals lots of time.
I just had the same experience with a retired Army Colonel. When I asked why we needed to be there, he told me otherwise Russia would have more influence. I asked if Russia hadn’t been there since the 1970s.
Blank look.
That is exactly what I am talking about. The retired colonel we were talking to was also a history teacher, and we had just watched the amazing WWI documentary ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ with he and his wife. So he should have a well thought out reason for wanting to not pull out on the tip of his tongue. But no, nothing. The closest he came was that we would be killing more ISIS... Maybe? Maybe not? At this point that is not a good enough explanation. The parallels between what he was saying and the gross incompetence and waste displayed by the WWI documentary whizzed right over his head.
More of Trump dismantling the Obama legacy.
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“The question is how do we make the area more stable so that businesses and people can thrive and pull themselves out of poverty.”
While a real nice pie-in-the-sky notion, we cannot do it, and we should leave them to their own devices. Not one American life should be sacrificed for a Muslim. They let the situation evolve—they can either defeat it or die. When the time comes, we will oblige bombing them all to hell!
I think the Iran connection is significant.
By getting out of Syria, Trump sets the stage for more serious diplomacy with Iran.
Knowing that Trump has control over his own military gives Iran more confidence that a deal made with Trump will stick.
Economic pressure plus trust in the guy putting on the pressure may create a breakthrough.
One of our acquaintances is married to a retired former DOD high ranking administrator. He is the biggest leftist I have met in some time.
July 4 1821. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams’ Fourth of July Oration,
“America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy...She might become dictatress of the world. She would no longer be the ruler of her own spirit.”
Yes ... and there's NK as a backdrop and example if Iran wants to play ball.
I could not agree more. If our current policies are not making our country more secure directly or indirectly then we shouldn't be there. If our current policies are not “helping” the future of the people living in Syria... we should not be there.
Why is The American Conservative running a column by the Vietcong/Pol Pot/Sandinista supporter Gareth Porter?
All the top brass want to work for the MIC when they retire.they need conflicts all over the globe.
The brass need a reason to justify their continued employment.
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