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President Donald Trump’s commitment to an indefinite war in Afghanistan Monday night received praise from rivals such as Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, but left conservatives like Ann Coulter disappointed. Trump criticized the Afghanistan war before entering office. However, in his nation-wide address he said he will not give an end date for the conflict and wouldn’t talk about potential troop deployments. There are roughly 8,400 American service members in Afghanistan and it was widely reported Trump will deploy an additional 4,000 troops. Shortly after the speech, Sen. Graham said on Fox News, “I am very pleased with this...

Increasing the presence of the U.S. military in Afghanistan could cost Donald Trump support in key states, according to a new study. The study by Boston University’s Douglas Kriner and the University of Minnesota’s Francis Shen found that communities hardest hit by military casualties in America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan swung to Trump in the 2016 election. If Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin had suffered “even a modestly lower casualty rate,” all three states would have flipped to Hillary Clinton, Kriner and Shen found. “If Trump wants to win again in 2020, his electoral fate may well rest on the...

Last night President Trump gave a speech on the way forward in Afghanistan. He stuck to the text of his speech and I think did a creditable job as evidenced by various Breitbart writers spewing blood out of their whatevers. The Washington Post has already criticized the strategy as being short of specifics. This says more about the utter stupidity and raw partisanship of the reporter. Strategy, by definition, is a general outline of principles. The Casablanca Conference that laid out the strategy for the war in Europe was a series of agreements of actions to be taken with no...

National ​security adviser HR McMaster used a 1972 photo of Afghan women wearing miniskirts to help convince President Trump to stay the course in Afghanistan, according to a report on Tuesday. ​McMaster showed the president a black-and-white photograph of three women walking down a Kabul street in miniskirts to ​convince him that Western culture had once thrived in Afghanistan and could again, the Washington Post reported. The photo was among the arguments the president’s staff used to make the case that he should not pull troops from Afghanistan – the site of America’s longest war, the newspaper said. In a...

President Trump’s “America First” base was the biggest loser of Trump’s speech on Afghanistan Monday night, and many quickly expressed their disappointment at the business-as-usual address from the president who had once promised to limit American intervention abroad and focus on nation-building at home. Trump’s speech, in which he pledged to increase the number of troops in the 16-year-war, was the first since the departure of Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and confirmed the fears of many on the right that without a strong nationalist voice in the West Wing, the President would revert to the same old fare that Americans...

The German government said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump’s decision to send additional troops to Afghanistan was “the right thing to do.” “It is the right thing to do, and we have been requesting for some time that the end of operations there be based on realities on the ground,” a government spokeswoman said. “It is our common goal that no more terror attacks are planned on Afghan soil.” […] Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen also welcomed the decision, but said that Germany would not follow suit by further raising its troop numbers. Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel...

I voted for Donald J. Trump because he promoted a foreign policy of restraint. I did not vote for National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to hijack the Trump agenda to continue failed policies of the past. I voted for Donald Trump’s campaign against “nation-building” and am concerned that this administration has lost its way on foreign policy. I thought it a big mistake for the United States to promote nation-building policies in North Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East when President George W. Bush pushed them and started the never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I worried that the...

China on Tuesday jumped to the defence of its all-weather ally Pakistan in the wake of United States President Donald Trump's stern warning to it over providing safe havens to terrorists, saying that Islamabad is at the frontline of combating terrorism. Trump, in his first prime-time televised address to announce his Afghanistan and South Asia policy, hit out at Pakistan for providing safe havens to 'agents of chaos' that kill Americans in Afghanistan and warned Islamabad that it has 'much to lose' by harbouring terrorists. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, while reacting to Trump's comments on Pakistan, said, "Hope the relevant policy decision by US...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released a statement on Monday opposing any plan to add additional troops to the ground mission in Afghanistan, hours before President Donald Trump addresses the nation about his plans for the region. “The mission in Afghanistan has lost its purpose, and I think it is a terrible idea to send any more troops into that war,” Paul said in a statement.

In terms of the universe we are quite insignificant.Solar System rendered to scale by Roberto Ziche.As upcountrywater pointed out, a 91% eclipse is not the same as 100%. 100% is total darkness. 91% is more like a cloud cover moving in. With 91% you don’t see the Corona, the “diamond ring,” or the dancing plasma flares. Day does not turn into night and the stars do not come out. In fact if you weren’t paying attention you most likely wouldn’t have noticed at all, (isn’t that the truth about many things?) so stealthily did the eclipse approach. And so steadfastly...

President Trump’s decision announced Monday night to increase the U.S. presence in Afghanistan by sending up to 4,000 additional troops and military advisers into that already 16 year-old war is both disappointing, and encouraging. The disappointment comes in the President’s going back on his oft-repeated campaign pledge to get our country out of that armpit of the earth, where more that 2.500 American lives have already been sacrificed to accomplish goals that under President George W. Bush were overly-ambitious and unachievable, and that under President Barack Obama were vague and unsupported in any real way by that administration. All that...

In outlining his vision for applying “principled realism” to the war in Afghanistan, President Trump Monday night insisted there will be no precipitous American withdrawal. Though he didn’t specify the number, Trump will be sending additional troops — likely up to 4,000 — to Afghanistan. That would boost our commitment to just above 12,000 men and women in uniform. And they’ll be expected to accomplish what 140,000 US and allied troops couldn’t achieve at the peak of our engagement, when the Taliban was considerably weaker. We all must hope that, by a miracle, the new strategy of enhanced training for...

Mark R. Levin‏Verified account @marklevinshow President Trump's speech was very solid 8:07 PM - 21 Aug 2017 803 Retweets 3,607 Likes

President Trump addressed the nation on Monday from Fort Myer military base in Arlington, Va., to lay out his military plans for Afghanistan. Following is the full transcript of those remarks, as released by the Federal News Service.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has spent months bashing President Trump for delaying a new Afghanistan strategy, on Monday night praised him for “taking a big step in the right direction” after his address on the path forward. “I commend President Trump for taking a big step in the right direction with the new strategy for Afghanistan,” the Senate Armed Services chairman said in a statement. “The unfortunate truth is that this strategy is long overdue, and in the interim, the Taliban have made dangerous inroads. Nevertheless, I believe the President is now moving us well beyond the prior administration's...

President Donald Trump said the U.S. is no longer nation-building but rather is "killing terrorists" during his primetime address Monday night at Fort Myer in Arlington, Va, regarding the U.S. path forward in Afghanistan. Trump said the U.S. will continue its support for the Afghan government and military as they fight the Taliban in the field, but said that it is up to the Afghan people to "take ownership of their future." "We are a partner and a friend, but we will not dictate to the Afghan people how to live or how to govern their own complex society," Trump...

The United States on Tuesday ruled out a hasty withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan as President Donald Trump warned Pakistan of consequences if it continues to provide safe havens to terror groups and sought an enhanced role for India to bring peace in the war-torn country. Trump, in a prime-time televised address to the nation, laid out his South Asia policy saying a 'critical part' of it was to further develop US' strategic partnership with India. He said after a 'comprehensive review', it has been decided that the American strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia will change dramatically. "A...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Trump is expected to announce a new plan for Afghanistan that will involve several thousand more U.S. troops, as well as putting more pressure on its neighbor and supposed U.S. ally Pakistan The so-called “mini-surge” of U.S. troops to mostly train-and-advise Afghan forces has been panned as more of the same, but a newer element of the strategy would be putting more pressure on Pakistan, which has acted as a safe haven for the Taliban and other terrorist groups attacking U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

There are places in the world so potentially volatile that the U.S. cannot leave them to the ebb and flow of geopolitics. The Korean Peninsula and the Middle East come immediately to mind. Afghanistan also belongs on that list — something President Donald Trump has finally come to realize, seven months after taking office. The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump is poised to authorize sending roughly 4,000 more U.S. troops to the South Asian country, the site of the longest war in America's history. Like their countrymen already in Afghanistan, these Americans won't be a combat force. They'll carry...