General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat do you think Trump's Afghanistan plan is ?
All the bad guys have to do is wait for us to leave.
Warpy
(111,437 posts)in great force while daisy cutters are dropped from one end of that country to the other and groups with flame throwers attack poppy fields and after 50% or so of the population has been starved/slaughtered and the rest are homeless, build a series of lavish bases with beeyoutiful golf courses for the brass and just take the place over. C'mon, it's prime real estate, on a major travel route and with nice scenery.
Damn.
atreides1
(16,106 posts)...can reinstate the draft! And I don't believe that the Republicans will even think about it!
Trump cannot reinstate the draft by executive order, Mattis nor the generals in the Pentagon can do it either!
Warpy
(111,437 posts)Then all his true believers follow his lead in blaming everybody else because he wants to do something illegal. You know, like kicking out all 15,000 trans soldiers by fiat.
So brace yourself for some truly harebrained Big Ideas.
fierywoman
(7,705 posts)malaise
(269,278 posts)but then he has lied about everything to date
Blue_Roses
(12,894 posts)about another country's security isn't all that big of a deal...
He is such a joke
Oubaas
(131 posts)Someone said it was a plan that dealt with the whole region, not just Afghanistan.
So I figure that he'll reinstate the draft with an executive order, then expand the whole thing to include Pakistan, India and Bangladesh along with Afghanistan.
That should draw attention away from other things.
atreides1
(16,106 posts)Only the US Congress has the power to reinstate the draft!!!
Xolodno
(6,410 posts)..he can do what GWB did, blackmail Congress into doing so.
Launch a major war under the guise of a national emergency, state he needs more resources and if he doesn't get it, its Congress who is at fault for "our sons and daughters" getting slaughtered. Obama tried to rescind the power to get into a "conflict" without Congressional approval... stupid ass GOP Congress over ruled him and insisted he keep it.
Oubaas
(131 posts)What if he invokes his presidential emergency powers first? Could he do it then?
And congress is in the hands of who? That might not be such a big obstacle.
He's probably sitting there right now thinking, "I'll show these protestors. They won't be able to oppose me once they report to Parris Island. I'll be their Commander-In-Chief! This will solve everything!"
But don't mind me. I may just be getting a little paranoid after the past six months or so. Chances are I'm full of crap.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)Trump SOP...
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)kimbutgar
(21,270 posts)https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-minerals-idUSTRE65D0OH20100614
Article from 2010
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Afghanistan
It's all about the money and getting those minerals. Wasting American lives and putting us further into debt going after it. He going to sell it to his base as helping to pay off the debt of the US. PUtin also wants in on this deal. Afghanistan posts no threat to us so it's about the $. Get this out far and wide.
pat_k
(9,313 posts)dalton99a
(81,700 posts)Retrograde
(10,181 posts)so much the better.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Option 2: Privatization.
Akacia
(583 posts)is for certain a stupid plan designed to bring up his approval ratings at the expense of innocent people! Come on investigation/impeachment/25th amendment, whatever it takes we need to get this clown show out of office! I am so sick of it all!
Sedona
(3,769 posts)He'll let us know
Doreen
(11,686 posts)just take other countries resources. Well, it looks like he is starting.
DinahMoeHum
(21,829 posts). . .oops, excuse me. . ."private contractors". . .
. . .and putting Erik Prince in charge as a "viceroy". . .
ananda
(28,895 posts)-- I'm leaving it to the generals to escalate the war in any manner
they deem appropriate --
WePurrsevere
(24,259 posts)Republicans love privatize. The problem with that is that privatisation is about making money not necessarily doing the job correctly or ethically. Even with Bannon gone I suspect this is the plan and this is just the beginning of what they will try to screw up royally with their 'privatisation' BS.
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thomas-jefferson-street/articles/2017-07-11/team-trump-wants-to-privatize-afghanistan-operations-and-so-much-more
The latest big scoop from The New York Times came this morning, when the paper broke the news that presidential advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner met with private military contractors to offer an alternative to a troop surge in Afghanistan: a mercenary surge that could funnel billions of dollars into the contractors' pockets.
That the administration would have ties to Erik D. Prince, the founder of the notorious Blackwater firm, and Stephen Feinberg, of the military contractor DynCorp, should come as no surprise. That they would use policy to enrich their friends shouldn't either it's standard operating procedure in this White House. But the bigger story here is that the move to shift Afghanistan operations from the military to contractors shows the full reach of the Trump administration's core philosophy: the privatization of everything.
The divisions between Trump and the conservative movement are well documented. On trade, on foreign policy, on social issues, there are wide and unbridgeable differences. But that framing has disguised the defining conservative philosophy at the heart of Trump's presidency: dismantling and privatizing public services.
|snip|
Military force falls into this category as well. Military contractors and mercenaries are nothing new, of course. Prince's Blackwater was active throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where in 2007 its employees shot 37 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad. Four employees were eventually convicted of the murders.
That Bannon and Kushner would pair with Prince to extend the privatization of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, especially in light of this history, shows how dedicated they are to the principle of privatization, and how little they care about its consequences.
More at link above.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)It is a dark and Savage land and has been so since history has been recorded. When we are all dead it will be a dark and Savage land.
On edit:. I said Afghanistan is a nation. That is wholly wrong. Afghanistan is as much of a nation as I am Darryl Dawkins.
July
(4,752 posts)who posted this prescient gem on 8/8/17:
False flag wag
dog
In the fog
Of war
What's in store?
The hor-
or (the horror!)
For ever
More
(Closest I could get for raven/Poe ref)
Glad I copied it out, GH cleverly nails it.
LeftInTX
(25,762 posts)countingbluecars
(4,766 posts)phase in of more troops- maybe 5,000 to 7,000. I don't know if he had inside info or was just guessing.
trof
(54,256 posts)The Kabul Trump Tower.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)The best words. Remember this: he has the best words! The very very best words.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,976 posts)There aren't a lot of good options, but count on Trump to pick the worst one.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)leftstreet
(36,119 posts)Awsi Dooger
(14,565 posts)I like my odds
tblue37
(65,528 posts)worship him.
NotASurfer
(2,157 posts)That's about his level of geopolitics
Shrike47
(6,913 posts)Privatization of the Afghani's natural resources.