Posted on 08/21/2017 3:53:13 PM PDT by jazusamo
President Trump has signed off on sending an additional 4,000 troops to Afghanistan, ahead of his address to the nation Monday night, Fox News has learned.
Trump is set to unveil his strategy for Afghanistan, becoming the third commander-in-chief to attempt to stabilize the war-torn country and forge a victory in what is now America’s longest war.
The speech is scheduled for 9 p.m. EDT Monday. The president will deliver the nationally televised address to troops stationed at the Army's Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, located next to Arlington National Cemetery.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
fight with drones
no more US blood
He got the “JFK talk”, I’m almost positive.
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I agree. I’m convinced many Republicans get that talk.
Well, from what I gather after the speech Trump plans to kill them all and let God sort it out then come home. So the ROEs will change to kill on sight. Better than what we were doing.
If we pretty much decimate the Taliban it will give the Afghan army a year or two of breathing room to secure their country after that not our problem.
Yes, after watching the speech, I agree with you.
Isn’t this where his incredible deal making could come into play?
We have something like 300,000 troops in 150 countries.
Can we reduce our overall footprint in exchange for focusing on some key areas - Afghanistan and North Korea for example.
4000 troops is not a number that leads to that sort of show of force.
And Mattis and McMaster are not people who are going to back indiscriminate killing. They’ll relax the ROEs but we aren’t going to carpet bomb neighborhoods.
The JFK talk may be why Mcmaster gets to rule the roost.
Because other than that..I can’t make much sense of it.
Carpet bombing neighborhoods isn’t really a strategy in Afghanistan. The Taliban don’t control the big city. They are out in the hinterland taking small towns etc and controlling the rural population. They get the ruling warlords to go along with them either through bribes or intimidation.
We pretty much know where all the bad guys are most of the time due to our drones. The worst damage that gets inflicted on our troops is from IED’s. 4000 additional forces with kill on sight orders can make a big difference if you are just trying to kill roaches and not trying to win hearts and minds.
One Brigade essentially. If it stops there it won’t amount to much. Maybe the Guard & Reserve can flesh out the support units. Essentially sounds like what we did in Korea after the war only on a much smaller scale. Problem is that the South Koreans were homogeneous and the Afghans are anything but that.
A turning point to what? Just a less odious version of islamo-fascism?
Even though we are not doing most of the fighting, I’m not willing to waste the money and men. I don’t see any upside.
Whether or not Afghanistan is full on Tali is meaningless. Even if it is not most of the ME is fully radicalized: Iran, SA, Yemen, Libya....
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