Not as tired of it as the world is.
So you’re for massive military budget slashings?
Pull a bunch out. Leave some behind. When the some are attacked because there’s not a bunch there anymore, blame Biden.
I don’t mind policing the world, but prefer it done from 35,000 feet instead of boots on the ground.
Tell Taliban, “We’ll leave Afghanistan, but only if this, this, this, and that.” And anytime Taliban violates agreement - get paid a visit by a B-2. Once a year, or once a month, as needed.
They have no meaningful antiaircraft defenses that can reach that high.
Trump just told Afghanistan (and Putin, btw…) “You don’t have to do anything. We’ll remove troops.” The art of the deal, and Putin chuckles.
I’m not so sure how you have been proven right. Not getting your meaning here, sorry. But I would say going back to my earlier comment, that the highlighted part sounds like what I was suggesting, that the military will try very hard to always find a reason to stay. I understand that you are stating a general objective, but this sound like an open-ended excuse to never leave.
I’m sure we all remember how George W. Bush said we were attacked because “they hated us for our freedoms.” I remain convinced that “they” don’t give a fuck about what we do over here, they just wanted us to get our troops out of their part of the world and stop meddling. However, even though troops have or will be withdrawn from Germany, for instance, I think a lot of the world is still very happy with us policing.
He said he would do it. Don’t think it’s a whim. The Industrial Military Complex are unhappy but screw them. This President hasn’t got us into any conflicts.
Oh, I disagree.
It was a whim when he said it. He’s proven reliably that he has no idea how things work.
It would help, assuming you actually want to be taken seriously, to get those words in their correct order.
Regarding the various comments about a “whim”, it does seem like that to a degree now, since he’s only been calling again for this recently, since he lost the election. He did repeatedly call for withdrawals both during his first campaign, and also during his tenure (Tweets, etc). But given that he did nothing up to now, “whim” to me doesn’t seem all that inaccurate as regards Afghanistan and Iraq. Whatever. We should get out now.
As regards waiting for Biden, it’s my understanding, and correct me if I’m wrong, that the military has contingency plans for just about everything. There are career Defense Dept people and experience people in the military that I would hope can carry such a withdrawal out on Trump’s command. I certainly don’t think Trump knows shit about it though.
While I’m as happy as anyone for us to be getting out of these “endless” wars, I really have to wonder why now. I don’t know that much of anyone, especially on the Republican side, was clamoring for it and I refuse to believe that it’s because Trump actually cares about someone besides himself. Are we sure this doesn’t help Putin in some way? I would have thought he preferred for the U.S. to stay entangled, but who knows.
Yeah, misspoke waterboard me. I don’t give a rat ass about who gets us out of these mindless wars. Just get our troops out.
Not an “excuse”, just a recognition of reality. Afghanistan has been a tribal society for a long, long time, and a very religious society on top of that. And not a western religion. The US talked a lot about bringing freedom&democracy™ to them, defeating the Taliban and all that, but you don’t build a working democracy out of a religious tribal society in just a few years, particularly when there’s such a disconnect between the religious and social attitudes of the two societies. You need to build up trust in democracy, starting small, at the local level, and gradually working towards a national level democracy. It took England centuries to make the transition from a feudal kingdom to a functional parliamentary democracy, and the US, Canada, and a lot of other modern western states built on that legacy.
Why anyone thought we’d be able to completely short-circuit that process in Afghanistan is beyond me.
Me too, absolutely. As I mentioned earlier, this is the kind of thing that caused 9/11. We are trying to change something we have no business trying to change.
A better question: what would ISIS have been able to do had we not repelled the threat?
ISIS used the territory it claimed as a laboratory for extreme theocracy. These are people who posed a credible danger to regional and even global security.
I understand the fatigue associated with perpetual troop presence and I agree that the idea of “winning” in Afghanistan and Iraq is not going to happen; it’s a matter of whether there can be a transition away from these places that puts people in a position to govern themselves with some stability. As invaders and occupiers, we have a responsibility to these people.
Nah, that’s not a better question, at least until you answer mine.
Look at what happened in France in 2015. You want ISIS to have a home base where they can essentially have free rein to generate their own economy, fund their own armies, and launch devastating terror attacks? Keep in mind that not attacking the US now might be part of their plan; they function differently than Al Qaeda.
Sure they have contigency plans to quickly evacuate our Troops from Afghanistan, they also have plans on how to scuttle the USS Nimitz to prevent it from falling into enemy hands, but they would rather not use those plans if there was a less drastic and more orderly withdrawal available.
My concern is that we will see a repeat of the disastrous decision to up and leave Northern Syria without any preparation or thought of the consequences.