Trump Rules Out Afghan Troops Withdrawal

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41008116

Complete about face from his recent comments....could Afghanistan be Trumps Vietnam ?

[Baldric]

///And this long-awaited announcement came after a months-long review, with the president himself acknowledging that his original instinct to pull-out had been reversed after discussions with national security advisers///

But let's not worry about facts, just blindly carry on putting the Boot in!

[jim360]

Trump has listened to advice it seems, and that strikes me as a good thing.

[albaqwerty]

'President Trump has committed to stepping up the US military's engagement in Afghanistan, but details were few and far between.'

He's rather good at that isn't he?
All rhetoric and no facts.

[mikey4444]

Baldric....I support this move, as I supported him when he bombed Syria over the use of chemical weapons ....have anyone noticed that Assad the Butcher hasn't tried using chemical weapons on innocent civilians any more ?

But Trump is notoriously fickle in his decisions and comments. On this, he appears to have listened to wiser voices, and for that he also has my support.

But lets hope he doesn't have another change of mind again next week or the week after.

[Baldric]

///Before his presidency, Mr Trump was not shy about criticising his predecessors on their Afghanistan policy. He previously supported pulling US troops out of the conflict///

That would of course be before he had access to National Security Advisers

[Peter Pedant]

// Trump has listened to advice it seems, and that strikes me as a good thing.//

"lets pull oudda Afghanistan and make American Great again!"
has turned into let us stay in Afghanistan

I think Mad dog Mattis has said - "Mr president - you can fight terrorism on the street of 'murica or in Afghanistan - but fight you will ! wez it gonna be den mr President ?"

He was speaking to troops who were deffo expecting something else

( happened before - Roosevelt fought his campaign 1940 on not entering the war and was in it within a year or two)

[mikey4444]

I seem to recall Trump rubbished Nato as well, before the Election !

[ToraToraTora]

how will it be Trumps Vietnam and more than it was Obama's mikey? GWB sent them there. Obama did not withdraw either.

[Peter Pedant]

// I seem to recall Trump rubbished Nato as well, before the Election!//

he also made a post election speech to the Poles in "Freedom square" Varsarva saying he was gonna leave them to the Russians ( again ) . The speech was full of pauses for rapturous audience applause which er didnt really come.....

[Peter Pedant]

// how will it be Trumps Vietnam and more than it was Obama's mikey? //

because we look at History - Algeria 1962 fr'instance - the only name associated with that is de Gaulle ( je vous ai compris etc ) but he diffo didnt start it

or Vietnam 1954 - the French defeat was so humiliating that I cant think of one politician who stepped forward - the name there is Giap

[ yeah yeah 3T I am sure you gonna quip - Viet-who?
de When? and what have the French got to do with Vietnam?]

[mikey4444]

TTT....don't mistake me here. I might be a "leftie" but I am no dove. I support Trump in this move. Its just that I wish I had more faith in him knowing exactly what he is saying and doing.

With Trump, its a case of another day, another opinion.

[anotheoldgit]

I didn't realise that the Americans still had troops in Afghanistan, even the fact that we also had a contingency of our own troops out there in that hell hole.

When are we going to learn we cannot provide the security of the World's trouble spots, they don't thank us when we are there or even after we leave.

I have two grandsons who have carried out two tours of Afghanistan and also Iraq and have seen many of their colleagues returned to England in body bags, and what for one must ask?.

So Trump should stick to his guns and ignore his office bound advisers who sit safely back in Washington, and get the hell out of Afghanistan, what are they trying to prove, that they can achieve something that the might of Russia failed to do?

[ToraToraTora]

mikey; "I might be a "leftie" but I am no dove. I support Trump in this move" - I need a lie down.

[Baldric]

\\So Trump should stick to his guns and ignore his office bound advisers who sit safely back in Washington\\

/// General McMaster has no links to Mr. Trump and is not thought of as being as ideological as the man he will replace. A battle-tested veteran of both the Persian Gulf war and the second Iraq war, General McMaster is considered one of the military’s most independent-minded officers, sometimes at a cost to his own career///
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/politics/mcmaster-national-security-adviser-trump.html

Yeah righto!

[mikey4444]

TTT....don't why....I have explained on many occasions in the past that I am generally a Hawk !

[Peakwalker]

Why and what is the point

[anotheoldgit]

Baldric

Ah! so General McMaster is still out in the field up to his neck in muck and bullets is he?

Or is he now office bound, safely back in Washington?

[youngmafbog]

The Donald has little choice on this.

If we stop 'fighting' in Afghanistan terror will increase and the fight will be on our streets with many more killed than currently are in Afghanistan. Hopefully we are learning from previous places we have pulled out of that we then have to go back in to sort out.

The reality is Afghanistan is going to be a problem for many decades to come. We leave at our peril.

[mikey4444]

YMB....well said...one of those rare occasions where we agree !

[douglas9401]

"....I am generally a Hawk !"

Hawk, aye the noo.