Posted on 07/31/2017 7:18:52 AM PDT by Helicondelta
The Trump administration is considering the ramifications of paring back the U.S. presence in Afghanistan as part of its ongoing strategy review in America’s longest war, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Trump’s national security cabinet is bitterly divided on the future U.S. role in Afghanistan. Senior national security officials like Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster are reportedly pushing Trump to allow a surge of approximately 4,000 troops into Afghanistan, while White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has lobbied against the effort.
“It doesn’t work unless we are there for a long time, and if we don’t have the appetite to be there a long time, we should just leave. It’s an unanswered question,” a senior administration official told WSJ of any plan to increase U.S. troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
We should have been out of Afghanistan 12 years ago.
The sooner we are out, the better.
Put the christians in the safe zone Trump promised. Along with the Kurds.
Hard questions to answer if one takes the official story at face value.
Easy ones to answer if one makes certain assumptions about the actual reasons and prime movers behind 9/11.
Yep.
Baloney. That “terror hotbed” doesn’t fly anymore. We let moslems into our country wholesale. You don’t get it both ways.
Afghanistan isn’t about protecting America. Its about spending 12 billion a year and those who have their hands out for it.
And we protect the poppy crop. 95% of non medicinal opiates come from there and we have been in charge for 16 years. America is being flooded in dope addiction because of this stupid war with no winning possible.
Afghanistan has zero value to the US.
Bingo, we’re over there guarding the damn poppy fields
It does worry me, however, that once again we have civilians second-guessing the military. I liked Erik Prince's (of Blackwater) recommendation—a core force of contractors to be stationed there long term and embed with the Afghan troops. Sending people in there for 6 to 12 months at a time isn't working. Still, I don't believe it would be wise for us to just leave. I think we are reaching the point where we realize we have too few resources for the challenges facing us, most notably N Korea and Iran.
“we overthrew the Taliban government in short order. But why are the Taliban still around??”
The leftists’ god the Fraud built them offices in Qatar several years ago.
We not only give Saudi Arabia free reign, we empower them. And apparently no US president has the fortitude to stop them.
They have the richest rare-earth mines on earth, discovered long ago.
The British spent over a century in Afghanistan, the purpose was to make sure the Russians did not push south and try to reach the Indian Ocean and end up with a warm water military port.
When the Russians left after their debacle in the 1980s, the US refused to go in and the Taliban took over which led to 9-11. The critics then had a field day saying the US should have replaced the Russians, thus preventing 9-11.
If the US had replaced the Russians when they left, the critics would have had a field day complaining about the US trying to “create an American empire.”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A no win situation.
Either go all in or get all out.
When I went in 2006 I believed in our presence. When I left in 2007, I figured we needed to either commit to 100 years or get out. I preferred Door #2...
“Wrong. It won’t work until we seriously alter the Obama ROE!”
I am not sure that the US has the stomach for the ROE changes that would be required to be effective in Afghanistan.
A student of history would note that Kipling wrote about the futility of military intervention in Afghanistan in the 19th century. We have proven (and the Soviets before us) that not much has changed in that regard in the intervening century. I suspect it won’t change much in the next century either.
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan
They said we should never get involved in the country...
There are absolutely NO US INTERESTS in Afghanistan.
None. Zip. Nada.
We should leave there as soon as possible. Completely.
Oh, we can return to kill jihadis if necessary. But we should not have a single service member overnight there, ever again.
Exactly what are we trying to achieve there now.
If we’re hoping to turn it into a western democracy, I say foggetaboutit. We’d have to run it as a colony for several generations and reconstitute their mindset.
An operation that no one is willing to undertake.
And if the Russians want it, all I can say is, “Be my guest”.
I concur. They are so unworthy of our blood & treasure. Get out & stay out now!
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