Sure, it looks like he just declared global war on terrorism, but he did it clearly and in a way that answers a lot of criticism of American historical errors.
Will it be a good thing? Well, all of those defined objectives sound good. What will it cost to achieve them? What would it cost to not achieve them?
I’m not exactly sure what’s new here.
Ronnie declared War on Bad People. At least he saved America from Grenada.
What was so clear, and how does it differ in fact from previous efforts?
To paraphrase. “We’re not going to ‘nation build’, we’re just gonna kill bad guys.”
Well part of the problem is that you have this alligators/swamp thing going on. Failed states are breeding grounds for terrorists.
There was a clear commitment to continue the war in Afghanistan, as opposed to pulling out. The reason seemed clear enough- avoid creating a power vacuum for bad guys to exploit like in Iraq, avoid an unhappy ending like in Vietnam. Make it worth the sacrifices of our troops.
The ultimatum to Pakistan seemed new, though maybe the change is only in being open about it. I read a sort of strategic alliance with India into the speech, like that is our strategic position now, to shore up “the world’s largest democracy” and be pals. Basically favoring India over Pakistan so plainly seemed new to me.
The objectives seemed clear, if broad. “Win”, prevent the Taliban from retaking Afghanistan, eliminate… bad guys I guess in Pakistan. The means to do this felt open-ended rather than X number of troops. I felt like it could be the start of a major new campaign.
Serious question, how do we nation build in Afghanistan?
What about Iraq?
Do we really know how to nation build? These nations aren’t Germany or Japan post ww2.
What I heard was that we are no longer imposing democracy. Which sounds to me like we will be supporting dictators going forward. I’m guessing that will go down well with Trump’s handlers in Moscow.
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Trump is desperate to be able to slap the label “WIN!” on something… anything… I don’t think this will be it, however.
Trump is about to find himself in the middle of a two-front political war. If he gives in and becomes more of a mainstream president, his ratings with his far right base will plummet. He might regain some lost ground with risk-taking independent voters who voted “Ah, what the hell…” last November, but I don’t think he’ll ever be forgiven by the Left.
To be fair to Trump, nobody knew that war could be so complicated!
Trump has, for the first time in his presidency, actually made a real, “reasoned” policy decision. I consider that to be news in itself.
Perhaps counterintuitively to some, this will actually hurt him with his base.
I doubt it, since…well, it’s Trump. Even if he is finally taking advice from others, I can’t help but think anything that man touches is likely to explode.
As often seems the case with Trump, even when he seems to say things that make sense it’s hard to see how he could be stable enough to see them implemented in a rational and coherent way to achieve anything that isn’t a disaster. Or, to put it another way, he is saying that TODAY…but what will he be tweeting next week? And the devil is, as always, in the details…how will he achieve these objectives, will he stay the course to do so. Does he actually have a coherent plan to do so that looks at the long term (or any actual plan at all) or is this more big picture blue sky stuff he’s just rattling off?
Honestly, to take a step back here, I think a lot of people on this board don’t really take the whole terrorism thing that seriously and they have huge chips on their shoulders because of past actions, so it’s hard to talk about this here. It will cost a lot to achieve the goals and objectives I know about that Trump mentioned both in terms of money and in terms of lives, but also in terms of just imposition on the general public who is already tired of things like security checks and patriot acts. We have been, by and large, shielded from the reality of global terrorism, and by being mainly shielded I think that too many it’s not really an issue. Oh, we see it on TV when terrorists attack in Europe or elsewhere, but it doesn’t really happen in the US. Most of our terrorism is simply home grown radicals who are lone wolf types, not radicalized folks who actually have connections to others to coordinate and plan. I think the cost not to do something about terrorism is a lot more than to do something about it.
But…Trump ain’t the guy to do this. He’s way out of his depth, and, frankly, this is a total about face for the man, so I’m pretty leery that this is actually a thing and that we can or will see any follow through with this administration, or that they could put together anything at all. Hell, I’m not even sure Trump et al will survive his first term…I’m not sure he will still be president this time next year at this point.
I’ve wondered if the winning side often resists democracy because they could no longer tell folks what to do.
Please point to those places that were clear and answers.
Only because he ran out of all other options.
Trump’s plan seems to be doing the same things we’ve been doing for sixteen years.
“Our troops will fight to win. We will fight to win. From now on, victory will have a clear definition, attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing al Qaeda, preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan and stopping mass terror attacks against America before they emerge.”
Really? Like that’s a new plan? Does Trump really think Bush and Obama weren’t trying to do the same thing?
Announcing the goal is easy. Achieving that goal is what’s difficult.
Generals: “Wait a minute, you mean we were trying to WIN in Afganistan, and STOP mass terror attacks? :smack: Damn do we have egg on our faces, thank God Trump cleared that up finally.”
It’s new to him.
Until now he thought we were in Afghanistan for the minerals: “Nobody knew they had so many minerals.”
Attacking our enemies, obliterating ISIS, crushing al Qaeda, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women!
Did Trump get elected, or Arnold?