Rand Paul: Trump Deserves Credit for Bringing the Troops Home

[Anti Globalist]

Hopefully those troops will stay home. Hate to see them get redeployed somewhere else.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Trump says we will leave Iraq completely:

 

[Swordsmyth]

United States-led international coalition troops withdrew from Iraq's Taji military base on Sunday and handed it over to Iraqi security forces, Reuters witnesses and the coalition said.

"The movement of coalition military personnel is part of a long-range plan coordinated with the government of Iraq," the coalition said in a statement, adding that Camp Taji has historically held up to 2,000 coalition members, most of whom have departed this summer.

Remaining coalition troops will depart in the coming days after finalising the handing over of equipment to Iraqi security forces, it added.

This was the eighth transfer of a coalition portion of an Iraqi base back to Iraqi forces, it said.

The withdrawal came days after U.S. President Donald Trump redoubled his promise to withdraw the few U.S. troops still in the country. The United States has had about 5,000 troops stationed in the country and coalition allies a further 2,500.

Iraq's parliament had voted this year for the departure of foreign troops from Iraq and U.S. and other coalition troops have been leaving as part of a drawdown.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/u-led-troops-withdraw-iraqs-083156723.html

 

[Swordsmyth]

After Sen. Rand Paul’s speech at the Republican national convention Tuesday night, which relied heavily on “America First” antiwar themes, he told Fox News that Republicans were now more open to his father Ron Paul’s foreign policy views thanks to the influence of President Trump.
Paul Discusses His Father’s Presidential Campaign

While discussing the 2008 presidential campaign of his father, antiwar Republican Congressman Ron Paul, Sen. Paul said of the GOP a the time, “It was a novel idea to think that we shouldn’t always be at war.”

Paul told Fox News’ Sandra Smith, “People still after 9/11 thought we should be everywhere all the time.”

“But now that they see that it’s not so much about war,” Paul said. “In Afghanistan, we’re spending $50 billion a year. We’re building roads for them and bridges and they get blown up again.”

“People see the futility in this, and I think the party that wasn’t ready for my dad in 2008, actually is much more accepting of the positions of less war and military intervention, but, largely because of President Trump expressing similar views,” Paul said Wednesday.

“I think it’s a clear distinction between President Trump and Joe Biden,” Paul said. “Joe Biden for decades voted for war up here — the Iraq war. I don’t think he has ever fully explained why the Iraq war was a mistake.”

“But if you listen to President Trump in rally after rally in year after year, President Trump says by destabilizing Iraq, by destabilizing the Middle East, you allowed Iran to grow stronger,” Paul noted. “So, we shifted the balance of power by getting rid of Saddam Hussein.”

The senator continued, “I’ve heard the president say many times as I have that Saddam Hussein was no great person, but he was a counterbalance to the Ayatollah and a counterbalance to Iran. But also with regards to Libya, Joe Biden was there with President Obama and decided to get rid of another not so great person, Qaddafi.”

“But when they did, they got chaos,” Paul noted. “And out of chaos springs more terrorism.”

“I think ISIS, I think the terrorism, the breeding grounds in Libya came from getting rid of a government with nothing to replace it,” Paul said, adding, “So, I think President Trump really gets this.”

“I’ve been with him at Dover to see the young men come home to be received by their families after their deaths in war, and it moves him,” Paul continued. “And I think he truly does want to end the Afghan war, and that’s why I’m supporting him.”

More at: https://thepoliticalinsider.com/ran...tiwar-views-but-they-are-now-thanks-to-trump/

 

[Swordsmyth]

Republican leadership at the RNC Convention this week talked a big game when it comes to "bringing the troops home" - something Trump has been promising since 2016 - but which has not yet ultimately been realized. But can he deliver now as part of a pre-election promise? It looks like the wheels are finally in motion.

Multiple reports citing Pentagon officials on Friday say up to one-third of all American soldiers will permanently return from Iraq over the next two to three months.

This would bring numbers down from 5,200 to about 3,500 according to Pentagon officials. Trump is in the meantime expected to tout an Iraq withdrawal as a success in ending the wasteful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, Doug Bandow, says this time America's presence in Iraq is indeed finally shrinking. Writing in The American Conservative, he holds nothing back in terms of reminding the American public what's at stake:

Hubris, hypocrisy, and sanctimony are all constants of U.S. foreign policy. All came together in George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Most foreign policy analysts, other than the neoconservative war enthusiasts who dominated Bush administration decision-making, recognize that America’s unjustified aggression was a horrid bungle.

The U.S. broke international law, vilified European allies, wrecked Iraq, triggered sectarian war, victimized religious minorities, and empowered Iran. The human toll was hideous: Washington’s war killed thousands of Americans, wounded tens of thousands of U.S. personnel, killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and displaced millions of Iraqis. The invasion spawned murderous al-Qaeda in Iraq, which morphed into the even more brutal Islamic State. Seventeen years later Iraqis are still dealing with their broken, sectarian government, bedeviled by powerful militias allied with Iran.

Bandow underscores that the Pentagon has pushed back at every turn on every attempt of the Trump administration to pull out.

The hotly contested November election, however, presents an opportunity where success in this is much more likely, however.

"The election-minded president desperately needs some foreign policy accomplishments. Three-quarters of Americans say they want the U.S. out of Iraq.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-reduce-troops-iraq-one-third-just-ahead-election


Trump said they will all leave sooner or later.

 

[Badnon Wissenshaftler]

I have to admit that Trump has done better than I thought he would do on this subject. It was my supposition that he was simply a "terminator", an infiltrator groomed by master psychological technicians to divide and weaken the "right", perhaps handing over the election to Hitlary, or keeping him under control if this failed. In any case, Neocons of both Democrat and Republican parties would ultimately remain in control.

Hitlary was just too horrible, of course, and the strategy failed partially, resulting in the contingent plan springing to action.

Trump had been malleable, and remains so, and his early vacillations, such as the Deep State "suggested" surge in Afghanistan and surrounding areas were evidence of that. But Rand Paul and "Freedom Caucus" (libertarian) types would be whispering in his ear. It was just a question of which faction would convince him first.

Some victories, such as those mentioned here (Germany, hopefully Afghanistan, Iraq) are to be celebrated. Others, such as the (now seemingly failed) outreach to North Korea, were a pleasant surprise. Few less audacious than Trump might have tried that, diplomacy be damned.

My suspicions of his terminator underlyings would occasionally be confirmed, such as when Soleimani was assassinated, and Trump actually proclaimed we "terminated him". I thought this a dire revelation, but luckily cooler heads prevailed.

I do worry that much of this is simply regrouping and rearrangement for alternative plans and schemes by warmongers, perhaps even more disastrous than we have seen so far. I've been waiting for them to go "hot" with Iran for some time, yet despite poking that Frankenstein's monster of our own creation, it has not yet happened.

Let us hope for simple continuation of these withdrawals, but perhaps, expect and be vigilant for ill tidings.

Playing Mad Max with Russians in Syria does not bode well, for example.

 

[Swordsmyth]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1299899241360510978

 

[shakey1]

This needs to be a talking point at coming debates.

 

[devil21]

Trump said they will all leave sooner or later.

Ron said the same thing, actually. Once the empire has collapsed and the FRN dollar destroyed (finished its usefulness to the British bankers as a tool of conquest) we'll be forced to withdraw. That is in the works, yes, but is not complete until the bankers have firm control of the resources of every country on the planet. Almost there. It has nothing to do with Trump or Biden or some other face on the teevee.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Ron said the same thing, actually. Once the empire has collapsed and the FRN dollar destroyed (finished its usefulness to the British bankers as a tool of conquest) we'll be forced to withdraw. That is in the works, yes, but is not complete until the bankers have firm control of the resources of every country on the planet. Almost there. It has nothing to do with Trump or Biden or some other face on the teevee.

Your sour grapes are delicious to me.

Trump is ending the wars and bringing the troops home just like we want and you hate it.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Rand deserves to lose an election for being an idiot.

How is he an idiot, you ask?

For praising this extremely illiberal government for its occasional, minor good acts.

I suppose Rand would have praised FDR at the height of the New Deal for reducing the tobacco tax by half a cent per ton.

He doesn't understand how this undermines the libertarian cause; while people who hate libertarianism understand it full well and cheer him on.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Rand deserves to lose an election for being an idiot.

How is he an idiot, you ask?

For praising this extremely illiberal government for its occasional, minor good acts.

I suppose Rand would have praised FDR at the height of the New Deal for reducing the tobacco tax by half a cent per ton.

He doesn't understand how this undermines the libertarian cause; while people who hate libertarianism understand it full well and cheer him on.

The globalist speaks.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

The globalist speaks.

The illiterate brays.

 

[Swordsmyth]

The illiterate brays.

Please tell us what your view on global government and foreign intervention is.

Never mind, I'll remind you and everyone else.

You want a world wide government that intervenes everywhere, that is why you are the enemy here who opposes Trump and Rand.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Please tell us what your view on global government and foreign intervention is.

Never mind, I'll remind you and everyone else.

You want a world wide government that intervenes everywhere, that is why you are the enemy here who opposes Trump and Rand.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Rand deserves to lose an election for being an idiot.

How is he an idiot, you ask?

For praising this extremely illiberal government for its occasional, minor good acts.

I suppose Rand would have praised FDR at the height of the New Deal for reducing the tobacco tax by half a cent per ton.

He doesn't understand how this undermines the libertarian cause; while people who hate libertarianism understand it full well and cheer him on.

So Rand saying give credit where credit is due, on one of the most critical issues of government, life or death on a foreign shore, makes him an "idiot"...

But the LP presidential candidate embracing a Marxist political organization is "smart"?

That's why people dismiss the LP.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Nice selfie, but you can't charm anyone with that tune.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

So Rand saying give credit where credit is due, on one of the most critical issues of government, life or death on a foreign shore, makes him an "idiot"...

Correct, praising your arch-enemy because he gives you a cookie is idiotic.

But the LP presidential candidate embracing a Marxist political organization is "smart"?

I said nothing about the LP.

That's why people dismiss the LP.

No, people despise the LP because they want social security, medicare, medicaid, protectionism, war, drug prohibition, the PATRIOT Act, etc, etc.

i.e. because liberty isn't popular

 

[Swordsmyth]

Earlier on Wednesday, McKenzie announced during a visit to Iraq that the U.S. troop presence in the country would be cut from 5,200 to 3,000.

More at: https://www.voanews.com/usa/centcom-us-will-cut-troop-levels-afghanistan-4500

 

[UWDude]

No, people despise the LP because they want social security, medicare, medicaid, protectionism, war, drug prohibition, the PATRIOT Act, etc, etc.

i.e. because liberty isn't popular

This coming from a mask nazi who thinks people should be forced to wear masks, and somebody who says that people should be silenced, and that the first amendment is overrated because communist ideology is too dangerous to be allowed to be spoken of.

This coming from a guy who talks about how he would crush opposition in China as he advises Xi Jinping to do the same.

The only liberty [MENTION=58077]r3volution 3.0[/MENTION] is about is taking the liberty to twist Libertarian writers of the 19th century's words into such a mish mash of over-lawyered semantics to justify his own brand of totalitarianism.

"liberty"