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Trump addresses nation on Afghanistan strategy

Ozigizo

Member
If you could, care to help some of us out here by describing what our new Afghanistan strategy is? The path forward? Maybe what victory looks like? Or how much we're going to spend in money and troops and for how long?

Because I got nothin'

Hey, but more war crimes, tho!
 
IZXfqJS.gif

That pat on the back, too.

Such a sheltered man.
 
Guys in the military can tell when someone is talking a bunch of shit and blowing smoke up their ass.

But to ordinary folks, I wonder if they see Trump as "presidential" after this.
 

Spider from Mars

tap that thorax
If you could, care to help some of us out here by describing what our new Afghanistan strategy is? The path forward? Maybe what victory looks like? Or how much we're going to spend in money and troops and for how long?

Because I got nothin'

Uhhh, we aren't going to tell the enemy when and with how many, they just have to know that the BOOM is coming, like that Kevin James Movie 'Here Comes the Boom'!
 
Guys in the military can tell when someone is talking a bunch of shit and blowing smoke up their ass.

But to ordinary folks, I wonder if they see Trump as "presidential" after this.

When he goes off script and acts like a racist mad man, his base still sees him as Presidential, him reading from a script won't change how they view him...
 

Lime

Member
16 years of occupation by now and hundreds of thousands of lives lost. I wonder how it feels to have so much blood on your hands and then I grow extremely depressed when I think about the fact that the war criminals and murderers responsible for all this are free and living in reverence.
 
If you could, care to help some of us out here by describing what our new Afghanistan strategy is? The path forward? Maybe what victory looks like? Or how much we're going to spend in money and troops and for how long?

Because I got nothin'

It's going to be a surge. He's putting more pressure on the Afghanis to deal with it and the Pakistani government is definitely feeling the heat. I wonder how Chief of Army Staff Bajwa will respond to this since the Pak government is basically in disarray through scandals.

I know Trump was cozy with Modi in India but I didn't think he'd actually know that India has been investing billions into Afghanistan to isolate Pakistan and get an ally there. He actually did his foreign policy homework here.

Victory in this war is a stable Afghanistan. India could take more of a step in to actually get this done, but not without Pakistan getting pissed and having another proxy situation.

Money and how many troops? Trump will obviously not say that due to his famous "I don't announce things to our enemies."

How long? Possibly this entire presidency.
 

LifEndz

Member
[So many mispronounciations, Obama was terrible, He's great.]

He could've easily apologized for past criticisms. Admitted that it's different being President and he was in the wrong when he was a private citizen. But no, it's nothing but petty bullshit, insinuations, and threats. Fuck him.
 

UrokeJoe

Member
16 years of occupation by now and hundreds of thousands of lives lost. I wonder how it feels to have so much blood on your hands and then I grow extremely depressed when I think about the fact that the war criminals and murderers responsible for all this are free and living in reverence.

We just didn't have the right presidents then.
 

Pedrito

Member
The "we won't reveal our plan anymore" line is a great get out of jail free card as it allows him to never answer a single question on foreign policy/military intervention, as he knows himself that it makes him look like a dumbass.
 
It's going to be a surge. He's putting more pressure on the Afghanis to deal with it and the Pakistani government is definitely feeling the heat. I wonder how Chief of Army Staff Bajwa will respond to this since the Pak government is basically in disarray through scandals.

I know Trump was cozy with Modi in India but I didn't think he'd actually know that India has been investing billions into Afghanistan to isolate Pakistan and get an ally there. He actually did his foreign policy homework here.

Victory in this war is a stable Afghanistan. India could take more of a step in to actually get this done, but not without Pakistan getting pissed and having another proxy situation.

Money and how many troops? Trump will obviously not say that due to his famous "I don't announce things to our enemies."
But we've done a surge before. What changes here?

The difference, seems to me, to be no deadlines (no public deadlines, but would leak), and no nation building. And we don't leave until there's a stable Afghanistan, like you say.

It does sound like nation-building though, and it sounds as endless as it has since the war began.

How long? Possibly this entire presidency.
That sounds crazy optimistic.
 
The "we won't reveal our plan anymore" line is a great get out of jail free card as it allows him to never answer a single question on foreign policy/military intervention, as he knows himself that it makes him look like a dumbass.

omni-dimensional chess.
 
16 years of occupation by now and hundreds of thousands of lives lost. I wonder how it feels to have so much blood on your hands and then I grow extremely depressed when I think about the fact that the war criminals and murderers responsible for all this are free and living in reverence.

coalition forces have lost 3,407 people.
 

NexusCell

Member
I mean it was a good enough speech, mostly because he was reading of a teleprompter, so nothing really much can be said other than we're staying in Afghanistan.
 
A nice speech to nurture and stoke ant-Americanism in the Pakistani people. I foresee religious parties taking out rallies in the coming days and much fear mongering.

Politicians in the country will also be pressured to respond to Trump's threatening rhetoric. I expect a statement from China in a day or two.
 
The "we won't reveal our plan anymore" line is a great get out of jail free card as it allows him to never answer a single question on foreign policy/military intervention, as he knows himself that it makes him look like a dumbass.

How is that any different to Obama's "NATO lead" Afganistan.
 
If you could, care to help some of us out here by describing what our new Afghanistan strategy is?
Same thing we've been doing, but making a small adjustment in troop size because of the new situation (ISIS + Taliban resurgence in southern part of country).

The path forward?
Focus on stable government instead of Taliban free government.

Maybe what victory looks like?
Having the above.

Or how much we're going to spend in money and troops and for how long?
Unknown but we only have 8,000 troops there, he's going to increase by 4,000, and that's nowhere near when Obama increased the troop size to 100,000 in 2012. I would prefer a complete withdrawal but I am satisfied by the shift in focus on forging stable governments with countries based on mutual security concerns. Obama and Trump, as much as the latter won't admit it, are pretty similar in this regard.

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You see only coalition lives matter. We can stop counting now.
I hate to break it to you but Afghan security force deaths would be the same or worse if we left and civilian deaths would be worse because ISIS would only have to fight the Taliban, not coalition forces + Afghan government + Taliban.
A nice speech to nurture and stoke ant-Americanism in the Pakistani people. I foresee religious parties taking out rallies in the coming days and much fear mongering.
I think the drone strikes might have had more to do with it.
 
My favorite part was the line about "total (military) cohesion" literally 2 minutes after talking about a warship colliding with a merchant vessel (again).
 
The difference, seems to me, to be no deadlines (no public deadlines, but would leak), and no nation building. And we don't leave until there's a stable Afghanistan, like you say.

It does sound like nation-building though, and it sounds as endless as it has since the war began.


That sounds crazy optimistic.

There will not be any deadlines realistically. I don't think we can have timetables on this until we straighten out what will happen with the Taliban, which Trump actually acknowledged that elements of the Taliban will have to be involved in a diplomatic deal for the future of Afghanistan. He literally openly just said that they will be involved in talks with them, acknowledging how much political sway they hold. The Taliban as bad as it is has too much sway and can be isolated as a political party, like Hekmatyar has been recently.

I think the nation building is being thrown more on the Indians for economic reasons, but again as I said before this is dangerous. Pakistan doesn't want India in its backyard. The Indian embassy was attacked in Kabul for this reason alone in recent years.

Stability is not a timetable and it does seem endless but that's the realistic viewpoint here imo.

Yea its not going to end in this presidency (4 or 8 years) Trump will save face here like his predecessors and give it to whoever surpasses him.
 
Same thing we've been doing, but making a small adjustment in troop size because of the new situation (ISIS + Taliban resurgence in southern part of country).

Focus on stable government instead of Taliban free government.

Having the above.

Unknown but we only have 8,000 troops there, he's going to increase by 4,000, and that's nowhere near when Obama increased the troop size to 100,000 in 2012. I would prefer a complete withdrawal but I am satisfied by the shift in focus on forging stable governments with countries based on mutual security concerns. Obama and Trump, as much as the latter won't admit it, are pretty similar in this regard.

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I hate to break it to you but Afghan security force deaths would be the same or worse if we left.
Thanks for answering. Appreciate it.

You too NyMartin90.

The feeling I'm getting is that the major significant change here is Trump. He's shifted from seeking to get us out of Afghanistan to owning it and making it an open ended commitment on purpose.
 
Same thing we've been doing, but making a small adjustment in troop size because of the new situation (ISIS + Taliban resurgence in southern part of country).

Focus on stable government instead of Taliban free government.

Having the above.

Unknown but we only have 8,000 troops there, he's going to increase by 4,000, and that's nowhere near when Obama increased the troop size to 100,000 in 2012. I would prefer a complete withdrawal but I am satisfied by the shift in focus on forging stable governments with countries based on mutual security concerns. Obama and Trump, as much as the latter won't admit it, are pretty similar in this regard.

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I hate to break it to you but Afghan security force deaths would be the same or worse if we left and civilian deaths would be worse because ISIS would only have to fight the Taliban, not coalition forces + Afghan government + Taliban.I think the drone strikes might have had more to do with it.

How many times are you going to edit this before you realize we don't actually care what you think?
 
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