GOP rep: 'Rand Paul is giving the president bad advice' on Afghanistan and Syria

The Hill ^ | BRETT SAMUELS

[Alberta's Child]

The Bush administration launched the invasion of Iraq despite knowing full well that it was going to end in a disastrous quagmire. They peddled a bunch of delusional propaganda to the American public to hide this.

If that doesn't constitute a "war crime" (just as it was when LBJ and McNamara did the same thing in Vietnam), then I don't know what to tell you.

[Magnum44]

Incorrect. The Bush admin launched the invasion knowing it was a 20+ year commitment and they made no bones about it. The “long war”, remember?. And they knew that if the commitment wasn’t there, then it would be a disaster. All the allies and players committed. Then, after the fact, Barky reneged. There were also many who committed that later cried uncle from the pain. “I was for the war before I was against it” BS. Right or wrong, we and allies committed. But when you walk away from the commitment, or half ass anything, failure will probably find you.

Lack of commitment is a constant problem and concern with our four and eight year cycling of government, but that’s just what we have to deal with.

[lurk]

You’re right, total war is the only way to make the enemy quit.

In the real world, we have these marshmallow hearted critters called politicians, who like to play at war.

[YogicCowboy]

My problem with Rand Paul is that he voted aye to stay in session. His one nay vote would have given this duly-elected President recess appointment authority.

Rand Paul is not Donald Trump’s ally - nor is Cruz, nor is Lee - no matter what the leftist press says. He is always his own ally, and sometimes the UniParty’s ally.

[schurmann]

Four points.

1.The troops aren’t “Our Kids.” They left kid status behind the moment they signed on the dotted line - an act that arguably made them more fully adult then their nervous-nelly helicopter parents. After that, parents exercise no further control: their offspring are not their personal property.

2. “Boots on the ground” is not the ultimate, decisive way to engage. Quite the opposite: foot troops have the poorest ratio of vulnerability to effectiveness of any force element. Without coordinated support from every other system in the battlespace, they cannot so much as survive. This should have been obvious 100 years ago: no other “lesson of history” from World War One looms larger.

3. American notions of what constitutes “enough time” to wind up a conflict are unrealistically short. We’re up against enemies who think in terms of centuries, perhaps millennia. We’re still two or three generations short of anything they’d think of as “short term.”

4. Americans have it backwards: war is the norm, peace the exception. There is nothing easy about peace - it’s not the resting state of any social system and won’t occur spontaneously. It takes real effort to achieve, and constant attention thereafter.

[jjotto]

Lengthy confrontations require a culture that supports them. Chest-beating and wasting lives and treasure is pointless without backing from the culture. Temporary political arrangements without changing the culture is simple waste that weakens.

[riri]

The best thing I can say about GWB right now is that his presidency ended on such an awful note that he destroyed Jeb Bush's political career on the spot.

And, dont forget who they were all so cynically pinning their hopes on--George P. --what's he dog catcher down there in Texas?

Ya just hate to see a good plan do awry...they thought they had it all sewn up. Turn the USA into a South American Oligarchy. Inject some hispanic blood into their line and run the country for generations.

Only...no room for milquetoast, low energy where we are going. See AOC for the future.

[schurmann]

“... Chest-beating and wasting lives and treasure is pointless without backing from the culture...” [jjoto, post 66]

I’m getting more lost, more confused.

On the one hand, many of deem America to be so good, so moral, so wonderful, s that we merit the “Shining City on a Hill” description, that we inspire imitation around the world.

On the other hand, many of us proclaim that America is too good, too righteous, too moral to lower itself, to risk any sacrifices, by involving itself in the world outside.

It may be as you say: American culture won’t support any long-term commitment. If so, then perhaps all the self-congratulatory verbiage is excuse-mongering after the fact, and we will fail shortly, at the hands of others who have lengthier attention spans. Killed by our virtues, as it were.