Bannon Out = Even More War, Trump Betrays on Afghanistan

by Robert Carbery

Ever since Steve Bannon was outed from the White House, there is no non interventionist voice left in Trump’s inner circle. We have witnessed the reversal of Trump keeping to his America First commitments in his decision increase our troop presence in Afghanistan, America’s longest war by far.
 
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote a piece Wednesday stating how Trump’s critics on Afghanistan have no alternative, neglecting the point of view that pulling out is not admitting defeat, despite it being accepting reality. We cannot maintain a constant military presence in this God-forsaken country, the graveyard of empires. This is looking to be more and more the next South Korea where we will stay for 50+ years!
 
WSJ’s editorial board began:
 
“President Trump inherited a mess in Afghanistan, so give him credit for heeding his generals and committing to more troops and a new strategy. His decision has risks, like all uses of military force, but it will prevent a rout of our allies in Kabul and allow more aggressive operations against jihadists who would be delighted to plan global attacks with impunity.”
 
How are we to give him credit when he listens to his generals, the central circle of the military industrial complex? And how is this minimal increase in troops supposed to have any change in the current environment in Afghanistan, where we previously had around 100,000 American troops in December 2009 under Obama? Our allies in Kabul have proven hapless and ineffective and no matter our massive commitment to the country, they will be doomed to their desperate reality, under the thumb of the Taliban or ISIS at this point.
twitter.com/jim_jiblets/status/899857997093978112
Bush-Obama-Trump. The commitment to the quandary in Afghanistan continues unabated no matter who is in charge. No administration will admit to defeat as to be seen as the loser or the one who gave up. Trump should stick to his gut and not commit us to the continuance of catastrophic foreign policy by maintaining our presence in Afghanistan. Don’t be persuaded by your generals who want constant war. Listen to yourself and the people who elected you.
 
Trump pays lip service to us “not nation-building again,” but I’ll believe that when I see it. When we stop paying for roads in Afghanistan that will be blown up by the Taliban the next year when our infrastructure is crumbling in many places here at home, then I will believe we are not nation-building.
 
America First, Mr. President.  
 
The president is also making it easier for American soldiers on the ground to do their jobs as opposed to Obama’s micromanaging from Washington. Trump said he is lifting restrictions on military engagement, giving generals further flexibility in creating more terrorists by our actions abroad while stating that our primary mission is to kill terrorists abroad. But this is all for our safety, right?

Trump’s surge will be around 4,000 additional troops to the 8,400 already there. What are they doing there? What does “victory” look like? Can’t we be honest to the American people and say we are creating a permanent military base there due to the major instability in the country that is in between nuclear weapons-armed Pakistan and a near nuclear-armed Iran?
 
The WSJ opinion pages love this move by Trump of course, despite the fact that his base is basically wholeheartedly against it. When he mentioned getting out of Afghanistan and focusing on America First during the campaign, people went nuts! He cannot tell us that things look differently behind the desk of the Oval Office. You were there to change everything and you have been in the decision making chair all your life! Listen to your instincts, and get us out of Afghanistan.

Supporters of Trump’s surge of troops in Afghanistan point to the impact or challenge it will show to Pakistan. “We have been paying Pakistan billions and billions of dollars at the same time they are housing the very terrorists we are fighting,” Trump declared in his pivotal foreign policy speech on Monday. Pakistan is certainly a confusing ally to us but we should not be looking for a fight abroad simply due to the fact that we are creating more terrorists and pouring more blood and treasure into these countries far from home in places we are not furthering American interests abroad.

The Taliban will take over when we leave. Sure. But is that our problem? The Taliban control up to 40% of Afghan territory today, is our new mission to reduce that number? Destroy ISIS in the region? Are we doubling down on a fight against the Taliban, who appear to be armed by the Russians in some cases, at least to a U.S. general?  It’s a no win situation!
 
There is no training up of local Afghan soldiers to stabilize the country. Senator Rand Paul is correct in stating we must be isolationist right now and pull out of Afghanistan. “It’s past time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan, as the good doctor wrote in his Hill headline. I would contend most people in the U.S. are for that actually. But Trump has foolishly decided to stay in Afghanistan likely throughout his presidency, as long as that lasts.
 
And that is a shame.
 
Follow me @bobbyshantheman
 

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11 thoughts on “Bannon Out = Even More War, Trump Betrays on Afghanistan”

  1. We won, but the job wasn’t done . Obama retreated and we lost because the job wasn’t done.
    Pres Trump has NO options thanks to the DEM Rats and RINOS, but to finish the job.
    Trump is not a quitter! Death to those who would kill us we are acting in self defense.to finish the job!

    Reply
  2. So was Trump ever real or controlled opposition the entire time? By NOW they must have made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, like the continued good health of his grand children. These Scum play rough.
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    We MUST continue to support Trump either way and keep the movement alive. Don’t let it turn dead like the Tea Party did. This is our LAST hope. Once Pence or the Donkeys git in then we WILL have the Globalists NWO consolidate TOTAL Power and most of us will NOT survive. This is real with Real Consequences!

    Reply
    • I think he was a mix.
      It looks like they really didn’t want him there (why else would they have tried to steal both the primary and the general election?), but there were reasons to be suspicious (Wall Street ties and all) from the beginning.
      I think he’s on their “one of us, but capable of some independent thought, therefore somewhat dangerous” list.
      As such, fake opposition in that he’s guaranteed to go ahead with some of their plans, and real opposition in that he might change a few things for the better if he can get away with it.

      Reply
      • Agree. However, half way through the primary it became evident the MORE the media attacked Trump the stronger he got. So I’d say THEY wanted him to win the primary. He was most likely guaranteed to lose the general election and THEY cheated to the max so he wouldn’t. Just would have stole ten thousand or so more Clinton would have won.
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        Now THEY can collapse the country with a supposedly conservative and have the Neo Bolsheviks save the day and complete our transformation into the USSA for the Globalist NWO!
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        That said I once again pled we support Trump to the end and remain a cohesive movement.
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        Just read that Bush was totally against givin Scooter Libby a Pardon after he was illegally scapegoated. Total abuse of power. It was Cheney who forcefully demanded that Bush give him at least clemency! Bush is such a scum bag!
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        Reply
        • We may have seen a genuine faction fight there… The majority of “them” wanted Jeb or Rubio to win the primaries so regardless of who won the general election, they’d be 100% in control.
          Then there’s the Clintons and their inner circle – there’s one thing that beats Hitlery’s loyalty to the NWO types and her love for anything war, and that’s her vanity. She wanted that office for herself, so she pushed for the opponent she thought was easy to defeat.
          Collapsing the country is probably exactly what they have in mind – but it may well fail given people will see they aren’t actually better off under the new rulers, just like many people saw that Bush wasn’t much of an improvement over Clinton, or Obama wasn’t much of an improvement over Bush. (Of course those asleep on either side will always argue that their guy was better because he just inherited such a mess from his predecessor – which is of course partially true, but then none of them did anything at all to fix that mess!)
          Why do you think Libby was scapegoated? That whole thing looks to me like Libby was singled out with the entire thing blamed on him (when in fact he was just one of many playing a role there) – I’d argue all of them should be locked up, but locking up one of them is still better than letting them all go. But maybe I overlooked something there and he actually isn’t guilty.

          Reply
          • Good analysis, very likely. None of us will ever know the truth. I will disagree bout Libby and lockin them ALL out over Valerie Phlame(SP). She was NOT a covert agent for over 10 years, name was listed in the CIA directory and she was even on the cover of something like Vanity Fair.
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            This is ALL most likely a MOB inside family fight over the Clinton’s and Bush, even though they are co-conspirators and friends. Remember it ALL started out because Valerie appointed her ole man to check out the Nigerian(SP) Yellow Cake to Sadam.
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            I was in Iraq 2005 to 2006. My unit hauled yellow cake, flew people to support destruction of Sarin and even hauled two liquid cooled cylinders marked Bio-Hazard. This at he time Bush was playing dumb about lookin for WMDs and lookin behind the White House curtains.
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            Da HildeBeast even said in the beginning of her SOS stint that Syria had Iraq’s WMDs. She shut up the next day about dat. THE only thing I can think of is that it is all Bread and Circus and THEY have to keep us riled up ALL the time about with THEM playin the good cop/bad cop game!
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            THX, Enjoy your comments Bro!

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