[lodi90]

Mattis seems happy. Looks like another conventional surge is in the cards, IMO.

[headstamp 2]

Oh, I thought John McCain was in charge of this now.

[stylin19a]

“Everyone who had equity was heard,” he said, including budget officials responsible for funding the effort.

probably not a pull-out

[Parley Baer]

“after “rigorous” debate”

Sounds good to me. Sounds like they hashed it all out with the pros and cons.

[Garth Tater]

“Everyone who had equity was heard,” he said

How many seats at the table did the Taliban have?

[Alberta's Child]

I suspect not.

I'm sure Donald Trump would go to great lengths to steer clear of any course of action that has already been taken and failed miserably under the two @ssholes who preceded him in the White House.

[odawg]

Needs time to decide how to explain it to the American people? Sounds like the entry of private contractors.

[Delta 21]

Rockets! I wanna see more ROCKETS !!

[Governor Dinwiddie]

#1: "Mattis seems happy. Looks like another conventional surge is in the cards, IMO."

That's what McMaster is pushing too. Bill Kristol is so excited he just made a mess in his bathrobe.

How dense can can they be? Sixteen years of failure and all of a sudden it's a new improved Afghan burger, now now with more Taste-Oh, the secret sauce.
 

[Don_Ret_USAF]

What! How dare Mattis not leak what Presidents new strategy will be! Looks like the media does not have dirt on Mattis. Good sign. No leaks yet.

[bgill]

Better yet, bring home every soldier we have there and have the last one out give a one fingered salute to that ungrateful hell hole.

[vooch]

another lost war that the brass hats want to throw more victims at

[Seruzawa]

Any strategy except GTFO will fail. Unless one realizes that the actual goal is eternal war and all that means for globalists, remfs and arms manufacturers one will never make sense of our policies.

[Seruzawa]

Look how brave our leaders are! They are willing to fight to the last 19 year old.

[elpadre]

What no leaks yet!!!

[Chewbarkah]

I sure hope not. Afghanistan is a combination tar-baby and bottomless pit. We can’t leave altogether, but a “surge” will get us nothing but grief and wasted resources, unless we kill basically everyone there and in Pakistan.

I hope Trump announces a “small footprint” approach, using our resources to bribe regional warlords to deny space to the more radical jidahis. The larger the force we maintain in Afghanistan the more anti-foreigner opposition we attract, the more casualties and bitterness for all, the more wasted billions for nothing. This isn’t a situation where conventional “winning” is an option; we have to manage it long term to avoiding disaster without exhausting ourselves.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Should not have put the first boot on the ground.
Afghanistan will never be tamed.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yeh the choices are go big or go home.

[Red Steel]

What’s the goal here. Complete nation building, or not letting terrorists have a state where they can freely without interdiction export terrorism to western nations?

The later should be the nation security objective.

[PghBaldy]

They decided we should lose more slowly? /half sarcasm

[Wuli]

Nothing good has or will come from Afghanistan. Even it’s refugees do not want to go back there. It is a long fractured society that cannot, and will not be able to sustain a non-Taliban government, ever, without too much continued U.S. support.