Posted on 10/18/2018 10:39:55 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
A retired Army general said in an interview Thursday that if anyone can bring the 17-year-long Afghanistan war to an end, it's President Trump.
"Based on his success in dealing with some fairly hard characters — [North Korean leader] Kim Jong [Un], China, some others — if anybody can do it, President Trump can," retired Maj. Gen. Gary Harrell told Hill.TV's Buck Sexton on "Rising."
Harrell, a former Delta Force commander in Afghanistan who retired in 2008 after nearly 35 years in service, also praised Gen. Scott Miller, the top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
"I think President Trump has the right man on the ground in Scott Miller," Harrell said.
Asked his views on how to bring the conflict in Afghanistan to an end, Harrell emphasized the need "to develop a solid line of communication down through General Miller and the envoy, but they need to be able to talk to the Afghan people."
"And try to win them over to where they are not so much focused on doing things the way their great-great-great grandfather did things, and bring them into the modern world a little bit. I don't know that that's easy, and I'm not sure it's doable," he added.
The U.S. currently has around 14,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of its training and advisory efforts as well as various counterterrorism operations.
The U.S.-led coalition has tried to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table through an increase in troops and airstrikes.
The war hit the 17-year mark on Oct. 7.
> The war hit the 17-year mark on Oct. 7
I’ve been anticipating the first story about someone being killed serving in Afghanistan who was not yet born on 9/11/01. I hope I never read it, but the odds of that are dropping every day.
This is what happens when politicians rush us into conflicts with no real thought about what the objective is. Bush and his neocon pals are to blame for this, Obama was only too happy to continue it, and the wimps in Congress went along without demanding that there be a debate and an official declaration of war. Anyone with a brain could have seen that this was going to end up being a disaster.
Recently I read that part of why Afghanistan still is the radical Islam expansion in Africa. Makes a little sense but still not fully to me.
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