Derek Chollet, Defense One: Don’t Be Surprised the Next Time Trump Ends a US Mission
No one knows why the president pulled the plug on Syria now, but NATO and South Korea should be worried.
The news that President Donald Trump has ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria is a shock but should hardly be a surprise. Trump telegraphs his punches, and last spring he made clear he wanted to pull U.S. forces out immediately. Military commanders talked him out of it by asking for several more months. But he didn’t change his mind, and they were on the clock.
Since then, administration officials have pretended this issue was resolved. They made a series of chest-thumping statements about how the U.S. would stay in Syria to sustain the pressure on ISIS and take the fight to Iranian forces there. Yet there was never any evidence the president was on board with this approach – whenever he talks about the Middle East, he sounds more like Bernie Sanders than George W. Bush. And there was never any attempt to reconcile the administration’s stated goals in the region – ratcheting up pressure on Iran, fighting ISIS, and “reasserting” U.S. influence – with Trump’s core objective of getting out altogether. This shows, once again, the futility of taking Trump administration officials at their word. With the kind of boss they have, they are usually left to faking it or free-lancing.
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WNU Editor: Robert Burns from the AP thinks Afghanistan is next .... Trump is pulling out of Syria. Will Afghanistan be next? (AP)
18 comments:
Why do people pretend not to know why he pulled the plug?
He made it clear. .he doesn't want to be the policeman of the world..the US has been spending trillions on overseas wars. It's crazy. The question is:why wouldn't he? Because generals want to keep commanding endless wars they don't need to die for ?
If those trillions had been spent on education or research or infrastructure (ie growth multipliers) the US economy would be triple the size of China now. It's those endless, illdefined wars that are the greatest economic threat to the US imo
Also look at the growing number of radicalised Muslims. We have ten or twenty times more now than in 2001. These drone wars and special commando wars have not really been effective by that measure. Sure there are other factors that lead to those numbers too,but bombing other countries never wins the hearts and minds.
Let us take the supposition the excrement liberals have posited or should we say deposited.
Trump is colluding with Russia. They have no telephone intercepts and nothing they can
or will publish except some shit convictions for jaywalking and bubble gum chewing.
Nothing proven but lets believe what the Left has deposited.
So how would Trump be colluding?
By creating a vacuum where Russia can move in? Nature abhors a vacuum.
But really how is this any different than Obama say giving the Iranians a billion and a half? It is no different. It is a president doing what he wants or thinks is best and Congress not having the temerity to ever declare war. Congress critters all want to criticize the war effort but none ever declare war. However, almost all are worth 3 million or more when they come out of Congress no matter how poor, when they went in. What a gig.
As someone pointed out Trump stated his intention during the election. Fortress America (isolationism) is a valid foreign policy. It is short sighted IMO, but it is valid and it is not sinister. (I'll point out AGAIN that it is short sighted.)
Trump also has a valid point when it comes to cutting expenses for these wars. The budget must be balanced at some point and it is not going to all come out of social programs. It can';t be because with the current balance of power it is a nonstarter. Democrats need their plantations. Patricians and senators need the dole because they need their clients.
If it were just the lackluster Sunni Arab rebels I would not care, but we are talking about the Kurds.
Mattis made the right decision. He was truthful about his reason for quitting/retiring but classy. Trump is making a mistake. Survivable (of you are not a portion of the Kurdish population) but survivable.
I'll still back Trump over any Democrat fruit cake.
Withdraw from Afghanistan!
We have no plans on how to fight the enemy, Pakistan.
Since we have no plans and no clue, let's stop fighting Pakistan and embargo their asses instead.
Cutting Aid the the enemy, Pakistan, was a good 1st step.
Trump is now starting to chip away at some of Obama’s campaign promises lol.
so much self delusion here.
I don't think this is "Isolationism" at all. Getting "allies" to carry their weight and add value is a reasonable positiin. Those who use and abuse can hardly be considered "allies" at all. One is actually better off without such parasites in thrir lives.
As for the Kurds, we got ourselves in trouble by making unrealistic promises. They got themselves in trouble by putting stock in unrealistic promises. Whose dumber? I'd say us. Actually I long suspected the Kurds or at least the leaders knew exactly what they were doing.
They hoped to extract as much from us as they could from us and manipulated us to this end. The threat to release ISIS fighters is a bit like a child throwing a temoer tantrum when they don't get their way.
The Kurds have received valuable training and military weapons from us aling with much foreign aid. Perhaps it's time they pocket those gains and quit whining. You abuse someone and at some point the abused catches on and says ENOUGH and takes steps to end the abuse.
You are the first and best example.
825
Sniping from the peanut gallery without taking a stand
Well its about time. Clinton, Bush sr and junior started Afghanistan, Obama started Syria. Bring the troops home!
Now the liberals are content with people dying as long as it has a spin on Russian collusion....no way it could be, brining back military personnel back to their families....no way that’s the caseš¤¦♂️
Anon (1st post at the top of the thread),
Well said. I could not have put this any better. "Because generals want to keep commanding endless wars they don't need to die for." Generals Mattis and Kelly are little different. While I had expected better from Mattis, he has revealed his true colors with his resignation letter. Then again no one gets to his position without sucking up to, on some level, to the powers that be. My expectations were to high and were not realistic.
The last paragraph especially nails it. I would add though that these endless ill defined wars are not only an economic threat but a national security threat as well due to the blowback and potential blowback from these. I have often referred to these here and elsewhere as "fruitless military operations that not only don't advance American interests but actually undermine them" and general Mattis somehow thinks hitching ourselves to these ingrates/users and abusers somehow advances our national security!! Surely he knows better but again to have achieved his position he had to hold certain views or at least profess to.
2 phone calls
1 phone call.
call bitch
Good pick.
Make the call. I'll call.
Why?
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