Breitbart:
President Trump unveiled his plan for Afghanistan after seven months of deliberation Monday evening, announcing tweaks around the edges of the current strategy instead of a different approach.
He announced five “core pillars” to the approach: getting rid of any timelines for how long U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan; using all elements of power, including diplomatic and economic; getting tougher on Pakistan;getting India to help more with economic development; and expanding authorities for U.S. forces to fight terrorists.
What the president did not announce was how many more U.S. troops would head to Afghanistan, which he decided earlier this year to leave up to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to determine.
He did, however, say the U.S. would no longer talk about troop levels or drawdown dates, making it unclear whether troop increases would be announced. There are currently about 8,400 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and the president has reportedly approved of a plan to send about 4,000 more.
“We will not announce our plans for further military activities. Conditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on. America’s enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out. I will not say when we are going to attack, but attack we will,” he said.
He floated the idea of a “political settlement that includes elements of the Taliban and Afghanistan, but added, “nobody knows if or when that will ever happen.”
He said it was up to the people of Afghanistan to “take ownership of their future” and to “achieve an everlasting peace,” but did not say how that would happen.
“We are not nation-building again, we are killing terrorists,” he asserted.
I smell a heavy McMaster influence. There was a reason Bannon clashed with this guy. You’re seeing it.
We won WWII in lese than five years.
We’ve been screwing around in the Middle East for… whut… 27 years???
Do what needs to be done and get out otherwise it’s just one enormous Tar Baby!
We can defend the homeland without our soldiers kicking up a lot of dust.
Time to let our military break things and blow up shit again.👍
You were right the first time, Mr President. Don’t let the swamp people fool you. These wars are pointless. Bring our troops home.
Five ‘pillars’, huh? McMaster’s little interjection? Or PDJT talking ‘down’ to Islamistas?!?
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains…”
To: President Trump
From: Uncle Al
Subject: Afghanistan
Dear sir: Your campaign position on Afghanistan was a significant factor in my decision to vote for you. Your reversal is very disappointing. You waded into the swamp to drain it, but now it looks as though the swamp has risen from your knees up to your ass. Please don’t fuck this up.
We’ve been fighting muzzies since the Crusades with varying degrees of success. Until recently they were contained in relatively concentrated in faraway places. Not any more- they are spreading everywhere.
We will either fight them in other places or we will fight them here.
So, we keep sending our people there to die so we can bring more of them here. . . brilliant.
The “war on terror” has been a war to “save islam, from islam” for over a decade.
N.O.
It is no longer a choice of “fight them there instead of here,” they are here, and once they reach critical mass as they have in Europe the fight will be here. Our political class has ensured this future for you progeny and it is unavoidable.
Al:
Yep. I thought I made that clear enough.
We have to fight them everywhere.
“Survival of the species is everybody’s business.”
I hate to see more troops be deployed to that hell hole but if the ROE is changed to let them kill people and break stuff it will be more effective. Asking a lawyer for permission to kill bad guys never made any sense to me.
HERE’S MY TIME LINE:
The Afghani government has until December 2017 to get their shit together and be self-sustainable, because sometime (no date given but it’s January) in 2018 we are leaving you and the taliban alone together to work it out or fight it out.
We babysitted for too long, and now you’re on your own.