Posted on 08/22/2017 8:59:22 AM PDT by Enlightened1
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 destabilizing policies of President Barack Obama caused chaos, not stability, in Egypt and Libya.
I voted for Donald J. Trump because he promised change.
I may have made a mistake.
Should we retitle National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster as President H.R. McMaster? For all those progressives who rejoiced at the ousting of Stephen K. Bannon from the White House — How do you feel now knowing that Bannon was a strong opponent of a troop surge in Afghanistan? Not so good?
The nation-building hawks have won and now expect the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol to cheer the president’s foreign policy conversion from a rhetoric of restraint view to one embraced by the interventionist wing of the Republican party including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-AZ). So sad.
Despite the fact that President Trump announced that “we are not nation-building again,” he is in denial about the fact that he is maintaining the nation-building policies that he campaigned against as a candidate. President Trump’s policy is similar to that of Presidents Obama and Bush.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Making the boss look bad is not a good strategy for longevity in any job.
Was Bannon a part of the “cabal” because DJT ran on staying and continuing to fight in Afghanistan as a presidential candidate. And when you commit to stay and fight that means doing what is necessary like adding more troops.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3579592/posts
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would stay in Afghanistan. It’s probably the one place we should have gone in the Middle East because it’s adjacent and right next to Pakistan which has nuclear weapons. So I think you have to stay and do the best you can, not that it’s ever going to be great but I don’t think we have much of a choice. That’s one place, frankly, instead of going to Iraq we probably should have gone there first. I would say in Afghanistan and only, again, because of its location next to Pakistan.
O’REILLY: All right. So you would keep the 10,000 troops there. And fight a war of attrition against the Taliban? You know, Pakistan —
TRUMP: I hate doing it, I hate doing it so much. But, again, you have nuclear weapons in Pakistan so I would do it.
.
We can disagree with this policy but DJT stated where he stood on Afghanistan back during the campaign when Bannon was around.
Trump hostage? Lol
I guess you think Trump is a dolt who needs puppet masters. Now that puppet master Bannon is gone, McMaster takes over the strings? Gotcha’.
It’s perfectly fine to question our involvement and disagree with staying and ramping up troops, but what the big hysterical lie is that POTUS is changing his position on Afghanistan because he’s the puppet of the McMasters or others. DJT as a presidential candidate ran on staying and continuing to fight in Afghanistan.
We originally went in their in 2001 to get Osama Bin Laden.
Well he is dead now. So define winning?
We have have spent a Billions of dollars now to fight men in caves? How many years are you willing to let patirot Americans die there? Another 15 years? How about 30 , 50 or 100 years?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Although I will give you this.
Thinking about this move it may have nothing to do with what we are being publicly told.
In other words it’s not really about terrorist. It is so that the United States has a Forward Operating Base in Afghanistan for Iran and China.
Technically speaking we pretty much have China surrounded. Ditto Iran.
Time will tell if I am correct or not.
You forgot CAIR. Terrorist front organization CAIR has publicly announced their full support of McMaster.
And this morning Linda Graham was all over, aglow like a schoolgirl with his support for escalation in Afghanistan. He practically piddled himself.
+1
That is the distinction between constructive criticism from Trump supporters and Never-Trumpers. Trump supporters know Trump’s actual policies, and don’t scream, ‘Flip flop!’ when nothing could be further from the truth.
Never-Trumpers just look for an opening to criticize; they couldn’t care less if what they’re saying is true or not.
Another angle to watch among competing strategies and members of the Trump administration
What about the taliban
Now labeled as a “ terrorist” group but the Russians I think have raised good points
Can there be any stability that doesnt include an arrangement with the taliban? It seems obvious after 16 years that military defeat is not realistic for many reasons
This is going to be painful for military guys like McMaster to accept but will Tillerson prevail? We will need a series of not large but decisive military victories to push this
https://www.rt.com/usa/400460-tillerson-afghanistan-taliban-peace-talks-negotiation/
Yes that is becoming quite apparent. Thank goodness FR knows who most of those poster are and just ignore them.
Bannon’s revenge!
HE RAN ON THIS! ITS NOT MCMASTER!!
I am not opposed to cleaning up the Afghan mess as long as we attack enemy bases in Pakistan and we have the means and will to win. If this is going to be the next example of a no-win war, then we need to pull out.
Trump spoke for years about getting out of Afghanistan. I’ve only seen one comment from one interview during the campaign, where he spoke very unenthusiastically about staying in Afghanistan. He said nothing about putting in more troops. He admitted to being swayed by his generals. I think he’s wrong. But even on a bad day Trump is far better than Hilary. My biggest concern is that he’s watering down the platform that got him elected and energized millions of Americans. He’s going to have a hard time repeating that enthusiasm in 2020 if this keeps up.
“My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts, but all of my life I heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office,” Trump said.
“So I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle. After many meetings, over many months, we held our final meeting last Friday at Camp David, with my Cabinet and generals, to complete our strategy,” he said.
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-speech-afganistan-2017-8
+1
That’s Infowar kinda nonsense.
Disagree all you want with staying and fighting in Afghanistan but POTUS as a candidate said he’d stay and continue the fight in Afghanistan as part of his foreign policy plan if he won.
This has been posted a hundred times already.
“That’s Infowar kinda nonsense.
Disagree all you want with staying and fighting in Afghanistan but POTUS as a candidate said he’d stay and continue the fight in Afghanistan as part of his foreign policy plan if he won.
This has been posted a hundred times already.”
Staying and increasing troop levels are different.
If men in caves are capable of orchestrating mayhem that could lead to a regional conflct going nuclear, then someone must continue to locate and destroy men in caves and in order to do that, we need forward bases and boots on the ground in the land of caves
Remember that right after 911 there was real fear of a hot war between Pakistan and India over Al Qaeda attacks in Kashmir and the western world was begging Bush to stop them- which his team did.
The taliban was labeled as a terrorist group. Fair enough but over time its become more apparent that Pakistani intelligence might as well be talibani.
So Trump has come out and ripped off the facade that Pakistan is our “ friend” . Fact is we have NO permanent friends in SWA. Only permanent interests and no one is looking out for them except us.
The Russians might be the closest power to having shared interests with the US in containing chaos, terrorism, and regional conflict in SWA but pulling up our troops and letting Russia fill the vacuum doesn’t seem like a realistic option, does it?
Trump talked about getting out YEARS ago when he wasn’t running for POTUS, and that ONE interview you mentioned is important, because it was while he was actually running for POTUS and it was an interview after he laid out what his foreign policy would be as POTUS. He ran on untying the hands of Generals and troops on the ground and fighting ISIS. He did not run on being a total isolationist.
So all this faux hysteria over him changing his mind because of McMaster or some other dark forces in the WH is just a BS narrative pushed by haters.
Again, you can be against this policy, but don’t act as if presidential candidate Trump said one thing and POTUS Trump is doing another.
Be mad at the RINOS not helping to get other things done for POTUS here at home like repealing Obamacare and funding the wall. They are the bigger issue.
Russia is not going back into Afghanistan.
I will give you this — if President Trump, succeeds where Alexander the Great, Queen Victoria and the British Empire, Russia in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bush, and Obama, where all these players failed, if President Trump succeeds he will have a permanent place in history, and the war colleges will have to print new histories and textbooks.
Now that the President has embarked on this course, I sincerely hope that he succeeds, for his sake and our country's sake.
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