Trump Monday Prime Time Address: Afghan Strategy

[Pauls' Revere]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald...rategy-in-televised-address-monday-1503262674

President Donald Trump will give a nationally televised address Monday night to unveil his strategy for the long-running war in Afghanistan, the White House said, a plan expected to include sending as many as 4,000 more troops to the country.

He’ll deliver the prime-time speech from Fort Myer in Arlington, Va., using the same sort of high-profile stage that his predecessor, Barack Obama, employed in laying out a new approach to the war in 2009. Mr. Obama delivered his speech before a national television audience at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., promising at the time to “bring this war to a successful conclusion.”


I'm sure I'll be disappointed.

 

[Origanalist]

This is all Ivanka's fault.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Wake me when the rumors stop and let me know what he says.

 

[CrissyNY]

is this the official thread tho?

 

[Wooden Indian]

Let's get 4000 more troops in the meat grinder. 36D chess.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Can we get a preview @dannno of the Trumpsplanation for expanding the war?

 

[bunklocoempire]

Lemme guess, the generals asked for 5,000.

Ready the peace prize, we gots a winner.

 

[sparebulb]

I'll take my cue to be upset about more foreign intervention when ANTIFA does.

 

[milgram]

 

[Swordsmyth]

Let's hope that is what he says now.

 

[goldenequity]

and suddenly...
Gen. Kelly waved his magic wand... and.....
there were...
no
more
leaks.

(usually we'd have the full text and cliff notes by now.)

 

[Zippyjuan]

and suddenly...
Gen. Kelly waved his magic wand... and.....
there were...
no
more
leaks.

(usually we'd have the full text and cliff notes by now.)

Leaks are that he will probably be asking for another 4,000 more troops (about a 50% increase from the current 8,300) and ask for more help from other countries like Pakistan.

Otherwise, not much real change in policy there is expected. Trying to divert attention from racism issues and ouster of Steve Bannon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...178cf3524eb_story.html?utm_term=.46691f7fc6c3

Although he may send a few thousand more troops, there are no signs of a major shift in strategy.

Trump’s announcement caps months of debate that illustrated a basic problem in Trump’s Afghanistan decision: As a candidate he criticized the war and said the U.S. should quickly pull out, but he also campaigned on a vow to start winning wars. Exiting now, with the Taliban resurgent, would be impossible to sell as victory.

“I think there’s a relative certainty that the Afghan government would eventually fall,” says Mark Jacobson, an Army veteran and NATO’s former deputy representative in Kabul.

And while Trump has pledged to put “America First,” his national security advisers have warned that the Afghan forces are still far too weak to succeed without help. That is especially important as the Taliban advance and a squeezed Islamic State group looks for new havens beyond Syria and Iraq.

Even now, Afghan’s government controls just half the country.

Wary that the president is prone to last-minute decisions, officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department remained tight-lipped about the plan ahead of Trump’s 9 p.m. EDT televised address from Army’s Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

But early statements from advisers and military officials suggested Trump had lined up behind a plan the Pentagon put forward earlier this year, involving sending close to 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to boost the roughly 8,400 there now. At its peak, the U.S. had roughly 100,000 forces there, under the Obama administration in 2010-2011.

The Pentagon does not claim the troop increase will end the conflict, but military officials maintain it could help stabilize the Afghan government and break a stalemate with the Taliban.

Plus keep in mind he has already dropped the largest conventional weapon ever used in war on Afghanistan. He isn't going to be calling the troops home. 4,000 troops will not be enough to change anything in Afghanistan- it will continue to grind along very slowly. Could be another 16 years.

 

[goldenequity]

cheetohs at the ready? aye captain.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Teleprompter of the United States of America.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

In talking about coming together, overcoming divisions, yada yada, he's using the military as a model of "perfect cohesion."

...a bit odd that, to compare a society to an army.

 

[bunklocoempire]

lol

He got the briefing, it's all different now.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Now he's building up the justification for flip-flopping on pulling out...

...."things look different from behind the desk in the oval office" (paraphrase)

 

[Origanalist]

Lol, now that he's pres it's all different.

 

[Origanalist]

Channeling George W. Bush.

 

[Origanalist]

Evil doers...yada yada yada