I am holding fire on this, but I think Rand Paul is as much an opportunist as any senator. First of all as pointed out, this is different (if true) in that the goal is eradication of Taliban and not nation building. Secondly, the Generals are now in charge. To be successful we have to:
1. Change ROE be more aggressive
2. Sell this as a part of war on opiates by burning out poppy fields funding Taliban and other terrorist.
3. Bomb the living hell out of strongholds.
4. Deploy Operators as intended, search, destroy, snatch.
We also need to decide who our friends are and who are enemies are. Support our friends while physically and financially destroying tribes who are our enemies. Then after Taliban is destroyed turn it all over to our friendly tribes with a continued presence on a massive base with enough air power close by to level country. I would not mind seeing more contractors, most contractors are former military who want to fight, but also earn good money. If the Generals are too programmed to change ROE and still wage war like Obama the Rand Paul is right.
By the way, the troops going in were already selected and scheduled a year ago.
Havent we tried all of that at one time or the other one over the last 17 years?
Look I get why Trump decided to double down, even though all his instincts are to get out: if he gets out and the Taliban and Al Quaeda take over, we could have another 9/11.
We don’t have any friends in Afghanistan. US soldiers are being killed by the Afghan army, the ones they are supposed to be training.
There is no nation to build.
We can never pacify Afghanistan.