Sources close to Trump don't want to leak his new Afghanistan plan for fear he'll feel upstaged and change it. https://t.co/YL0l5fOCCp
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) August 22, 2017
.
“Let’s Get This Over With” edition:
Dear America:
Have fun.Sincerely, the Ghost of Alexander The Great
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 22, 2017
mumble mumble, sniff, hand gesture, hand gesture, mumble mumble, sniff, hand gesture, mumble, sniff, mumble, hand gesture, hand gesture
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 22, 2017
Trump: ‘We Will Fight In Afghanistan Until Victorious, Or I Change My Mind, Get Distracted, Look Bad, Or Get Bored’ https://t.co/PKVOIdzLts pic.twitter.com/J8SGytOlan
— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 22, 2017
oh and he'll get graded on a curve just because he didn't decide to build Erik Prince's Apocalypse Now Haunted Amusement Park.
— Local Milk Steak (@ZeddRebel) August 22, 2017
"We are not nation building again," says Pres Trump about the US role in Afghanistan. "We are killing terrorists.” pic.twitter.com/qIOBrfPuJ3
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 22, 2017
This was also Obama's doctrine https://t.co/p4n0kyUqIB
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) August 22, 2017
Apparently we are going to win the war in Afghanistan by winning the war in Afghanistan.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 22, 2017
Note how once Trump leans into the portion about the blood and treasure wasted in Afghanistan.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 22, 2017
Military power alone can't win, but we'll kill our way out
Won't nation-build, but Afghan govt must stand up
US security, but NATO pays— Jason Lyall (@jaylyall_red5) August 22, 2017
How are we supposed to have a rational conversation about strategy & end goals if the conditions measuring progress are secret? Oh wait.
— Jason Lyall (@jaylyall_red5) August 22, 2017
So many red lights are flashing in my head right now I can't even tweet my thoughts
— Jason Lyall (@jaylyall_red5) August 22, 2017
In case you were wondering, "so I studied Afghanistan in great detail and from every conceivable angle" was when I laughed out loud.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 22, 2017
"But I fully knew what I was getting into" triggered another loud guffaw.
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 22, 2017
Trump may have freaked out Pakistan by calling on India to do more, while offending India by demanding it do more.
— Stephen Tankel (@StephenTankel) August 22, 2017
Here comes the "this time it's not Vietnam" myth
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 22, 2017
The "restrictions" that Trump just announced he's lifting were almost certainly designed to prevent Afghan civilian casualties
— Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp) August 22, 2017
I wonder if any of our allies in Afghanistan got the barely veiled hint that we're going to loot their mineral wealth.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) August 22, 2017
So Trump is promising to keep US service members in Afghanistan in perpetuity? How else do you interpret that political solution line?
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) August 22, 2017
If diplomacy is to be part of new strategy, it would be nice to fully fund the State Department.
— Stephen Walt (@stephenWalt) August 22, 2017
There is not a confirmed US Ambassador to Afghanistan at present.
— Phil Elliott (@Philip_Elliott) August 22, 2017
Also, ambassadors to the various South Asian nations. https://t.co/XcAez91bu9
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 22, 2017
But to be honest, I'm not sure what it means to say "we will win" and "conditions-based" if not "therefore, nation-building." /4x
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 22, 2017
How did Trump deliver an address to the nation about his Afghanistan strategy without telling the nation how many troops he is sending?
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) August 22, 2017
I believe #trump owes Obama royalties for ripping off Obama's 2009 speech announcing Afghan surge.
— Stephen Walt (@stephenWalt) August 22, 2017
Basically, we're all going to spend hours analyzing that POTUS confirmed no change in our AFG policy from Bush to Obama to Trump.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 22, 2017
bottom line: a few thousand more troops, no new policy. there's nothing dramatic about it except that trump acknowledged flipflop
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) August 22, 2017
Bottom line: Trump has now expanded US military presence and/or airstrikes in EVERY combat theater he inherited from Obama.
— Micah Zenko (@MicahZenko) August 22, 2017
cc: every person who said that Hillary Clinton was the neo-con candidate in 2016 https://t.co/mDvzJZhzXQ
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) August 22, 2017
Takeaway from chatting w a Pentagon source: What does victory mean in Afghanistan? We still don't know
— Betsy Woodruff (@woodruffbets) August 22, 2017
If you're tempted to write a "Trump turned presidential!" piece tonight, remember he's going to be unleashed at a campaign rally tomorrow.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 22, 2017
And it wasn't even presidential. Seems like: "I still think I was right, but we'll see. If it works out, great. If not, blame the generals." https://t.co/I2dGs2KkUY
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 22, 2017
He will contradict everything he just said in his morning tweet dump tomorrow.
— Ocho Fisho (@OchoFisho) August 22, 2017
Villago Delenda Est
The vile Villager pundits cannot be rounded up and placed up against a wall soon enough.
Yutsano
Didn’t watch, Can’t stand watching Dolt45 talk. Even in his native Neanderthal*.
*with apologies to all Neanderthals.
EBT
“Kill them all and let god sort them out” is the plan a lot of the right really fucking wants.
Adria McDowell
We’ll still have combat troops in AFG when my kid turns 18, and she’s five. Utterly ridiculous.
Yutsano
@EBT: The Albigensian Crusade never ended.
sharl
OT – I keep forgetting that the missing sailors on the USS John S. McCain may have been trapped in the flooded compartments of the ship. They are now sending divers into those areas to look.
Amir Khalid
So Trump’s big announcement on Afghanistan was … basically nothing? I expected as much. I am a bit disappointed, though, that he didn’t beclown himself again with some beyond-the-pale adlib..
Brachiator
So let me get this straight. We don’t have ambassadors for Afghanistan or South Korea, and we don’t have State Department people in place for various Asia desks.
Is this another example of running the country like a business? Lean and mean. Not weighed down by reality or any need for foreign policy expertise?
Major Major Major Major
So he didn’t mention his electoral victories? I guess I guessed wrong.
NotMax
Half a billion simoleons? We all can surmise that’s just the starting point., as military projects such as these routinely overrun any initial budgeting.
Includes a $50 million proposed cost for each hospital bed. And, in WTF-ery, a tent city for 13 thousand migrants?
Trump’s Pentagon wants to spend almost $500 million on Guantánamo construction
jl
@Brachiator:
” We don’t have ambassadors for Afghanistan ”
Trump said we aren’t doing state building. See, he’s thought this all through. /s
EBT
So we are going to contract like pre WWI isolationist America, until someone smacks at us. Except we have long range bombs and missiles.
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid:
Wait for his morning Twitter dump — he’s bound to have some profoundly clueless / offensive afterthoughts. Or attacks on people who he believes have been VERY UNFAIR to keep saying BAD! stuff like Same as President Obama’s policy only not as coherent or Thanks to everyone who called HRC a warmonger or What’s with all the sniffing, is he back on the… sudafed again?
Major Major Major Major
@EBT: Well, there are elements of pre-war Germany going on too.
TheMightyTrowel
@Major Major Major Major: You made me think of this great bit by Eddie Izzard.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
Per the report, half of that money is for a five-bed hospital on base. Five beds. US$50 million for each one, to replace an existing 12-bed hospital. Sounds way out of whack..
Sloane Ranger
OK. Full disclosure, I did not hear speech but from reports it seems he’s been sold on a John Wayne approach of ‘let’s kill terrorists” rather than namby-pamby kumbeya Nation building.
Taken to its logical conclusion doesn’t this approach lead to the US needing to have a permanent presence in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future and it’s troops becoming another armed group, granted better trained with better arms than others?
Also, I thought Afghanistan was a NATO operation. Has he consulted with allies about this?
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
Don’t forget, Trump’s plan also includes being less careful about ensuring the Afghans killed by the US military are indeed terrorists. The resulting rise in deaths of children and other noncombatants will no doubt make the people of Afghanistan think more kindly of America.
Sloane Ranger
@Amir Khalid: Exactly, just another group killing those it considers enemies. Advantage – better training, better arms than others.
Disadvantages – less knowledge of terrain and no or certainly diminishing levels of local support due to inability or unwillingness to distinguish between enemies, potential allies and neutrals.
Result = More terrorists created for every one killed.
sm*t cl*de
Other countries rationalise their participation in the occupation of Afghanistan precisely on the grounds that it is nation-building, but if that goal has officially been abandoned, we’re all happy to go home.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: But you don’t understand. Each of those beds is for the “worst of the worst”. You know, those terrorist guys who at 75 can cloud men’s minds and suddenly become ten feet tall and have the strength of 30 men. Those WotW guys are like Transformers. Beds for such monsters are really, really expensive.
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
Dman
@Amir Khalid: he doesn’t have to tweet it. He called the Afghan leader prime minister when in fact he is a president.
Sloane Ranger
UK news just reported that Government Minister has welcomed Trump’s commitment to send more troops to Afghanistan and pointed out that the UK already increased troop numbers in June.
Thinking/hoping this is a diplomatic FU to DOLTUS.
Kolohe
@Dman:
Trump might have been talking about Abdullah Abdullah. He was given a title of “Chief Executive”, sometimes rendered as “Prime Minister” in the press, in order to resolve the (somewhat still ongoing) dispute over the last (Afghan) Presidential election.
Chris
@Sloane Ranger:
Yeah, as near as I can tell, he’s just doing the foreign policy version of “government should only be about killing, beating, and jailing people, not namby-pamby welfare state handouts to the lazy undeserving blacks and browns!”
gratuitous
Killing more brown people, send a bunch of kids to Afghanistan who aren’t related to anyone in the national media, and some other vagaries, and the national media swoon over how presidential Trump sounded. Nauseating.