Is Trump Sending More Troops to the Longest War Ever?
By Thom Hartmann A...
Donald Trump has said for years that we should get out of Afghanistan.
The campaign version of Donald Trump railed against our endless "stupid wars".
So why is the presidential version of Donald Trump about to send thousands of additional troops to expand the occupation of that war torn country?
Was Trump ever serious about non-interventionism?
Or was all that talk about one of his scams?
Last night Donald Trump addressed the nation live on television from Fort Myer, Virginia.
In that address he announced a new strategy for the War in Afghanistan, one that will include sending 4,000 additional troops to fight in what is now America's longest war by far.
This is a big about-face from Trump. If you go back through his Twitter feed, he's been calling for us to get out of Afghanistan and other wars for years.
"We have wasted an enormous amount of blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Their government has zero appreciation. Let's get out!" - Donald J. Trump, 21 Nov 2013
"Afghanistan is a total disaster. We don't know what we are doing. They are, in addition to everything else, robbing us blind." - Donald J. Trump, 12 Mar 2012
"When will we stop wasting our money on rebuilding Afghanistan? We must rebuild our country first." - Donald J. Trump, 7 Oct 2011
"A suicide bomber has just killed U.S. troops in Afghanistan. When will our leaders get tough and smart. We are being led to slaughter!" - Donald J. Trump, 21 Dec 2015
Has he already betrayed his campaign promise of "no more stupid wars"?
Have the generals hijacked his foreign policy, or was all his anti-interventionist talk just a big scam to begin with?
Comments
#2
The generals are running the show now, folks. If this prime time address was intended to be a "policy statyement" it fell flat on its face. Trump spent the first third of his thirty minute prime time address spewing platitudes about the brave men and women of our military while the camera panned the camo clad soldiers seated in front of this fat babboon. Just to get the juices flowing, I suppose. Then he essentially issued a series of ambiguous (at best) talking points that rang as hollow as his void campaign promises. "We're going to WIN, trust me! We got a great strategy but we're not going to talk about it because it might give an advantage to the enemy!" BULLSHIT, you moron! You haven't got a clue. Meanwhile the military-industrial-congressional complex churns on in endless war profiteering. It sickens me to think of the number of people I encounter that are buying this garbage.
#3
- Clinton campaigned on a consensous foriegn policy. And what is the consensous? Essentially the right wing Israeli belief that perpetual war in the Middle East with all the Arab states and Iran makes Israel safer. It is no accident that Trump has done exactly what Clinton and Obama did and would do. He flowed to the left of Clinton during the campaign because he sensed a vaccuum and saw an oppurtunity to discourage Democrats by offering an antiwar stance that used to be their position. Hillary of course was oblivious to this. I notice the headline above as though it is some sort of revalation: HRC says she will defend Israel and push for a 2 state solution. Qaddafi was for a two state solution long ago. Ridiculous. Trump just depressed her turn out by appealing to leftists with his anti war rhetoric. He also defferentiated himself from the herd of Republican primary candidates. Clearly he is a con artist and this (the anti war vote) was an easy mark for him. It is more shocking there is no anti war wing of Democratic Party any long. No economic policies either, just diversity nonsense. The disparity in income and opportunity is driven by class not race or gender. Do you think Chelsea would have gotten into Stanford if she were born in a trailor park in Palm Desert?
#4
As the old Watergate saying goes: "follow the money"
#5
Trump certainly missed the history lessons about Vietnam and Johnson's war. Maybe he was to busy dodging the draft? Stop hey whats that sound everybody look whats going down...
#6
The generals have given Trump an ultimatum. Shape up or ship out. That's what we see now. He got that same message at Fordham - 53 years ago. And they shipped him out. We will see. But whatever, he is a phony person.
The generals have their own agenda, and way of milking profit from the system. Only Bernie had this right. It's one issue: GREED. Not racism, not terrorism. They are fueled by greed to. And our capitalistic society needs brakes on its capitalism to stay effective. Otherwise it progresses to wealth disparity, anger, police state, fascism. If people are greedy by nature, we need to legislate sharing the wealth. Its that easy and NOTHING ELSE will work to sustain our democracy.
#7
Since the man betrayed everyone who ever trusted him--his tenants, his backers, his contractors, his wives--there is no reason to trust what he says. (He is now following Nixon's script and throwing aides under the bus.) But he cannot admit failure, even if he has to take on the burden of proving he can do better. He is enamored of generals, or at least ones who will "act tough" and be macho fighting men. Having apparently no knowledge of history or other cultures he is utterly unable to comprehend why the Afghani opposition fights on. Changed his position? As an outsider he was happy to critize. Now inside his worldview is on the level of a comic book. Don't expect more.
#8
I thank outback for his fantastic comments alsothe ex classmate of Trump. There is something I think that Tom should look into. I watch his show onRtnetwork mondat through friday every day. I live in san Francisco and I watch it on Cable channel 103. It is The Big Picture. For approximately the last 4 weeks the reception for this show which I watch at 4.00 pm pst has been terrible. This also includes whatever shows follow it at 4.30 or 5.00 pm pst. This includes Chris Hedges Show and Redacted tonight. There is no problem with any other show that I watch on RT or any other channel on my Tv. Could this possibly be done on purpose. The shows are ok for about 5 seconds than fade out to dark yhan do it again . This goes on for the entire show. You can however always hear the voices and what is bieng said. Has anyone else mentioned this or am I the first one. If Tom is reading this or if anyone else is reading this who can inform him of this situation please do so. I would really appreciate it. I think that it is bieng done on purpose by maybe a right wing hacker hacking into the network. These shows are the most progressive and best shows on RT where you hear the truth and these are the only shows that it is happening to. It never ever happens to the Larry King show mainly because he is an ass kissing power adoring sycophantic little weasel. Please inform Tom Hartmann of this situation. Thank You Very Much.
#9
Recent polls indicate over 70% of Teapublicans think Trump is doing a good job. Obviously his lies leading up to November mean nothing to them. This little fact sounds boring and I'm preaching to the choir as usual, I realize that, but this is extremely important because it proves a point I've been desperately trying to communicate for years on this blog.
We won't be able to change things until we get control of the message. As per the above poll, it's clear the corpse media has virtually brainwashed a huge segment of the populous, and without a massive media vehicle to counter with truth, I'm quite convinced we're going to still be in this same god damn hellish situation after 2018 and 2020.
Why a billionaire with half a brain won't step up to save our democracy and global environment with a network to go after foxaganda and the Bannon's out there I don't know....maybe the few sane billionaires out there have no offspring????
Until I'm red faced I've warned my local Indivisible group that It won't matter how good out local candidate is without educating citizens about the foxaganda lies confusing them....they'll simply vote for their "team" again.
You know what... I didn't give a crap that we can't get single payer passed right now, that's not the point...the point about control of the message is that current democratic public servants need to continually speak out that they will pass single payer if voted into a majority roll...why in hell is it so hard for them to understand what offense and message is about????
Unrelated: Thom knows as well as I how much pain and joblessness will result from the inevitable crash thats coming....as always the price of unregulated greed by the few will be paid by the working class many. My hope is that at least hard working citizens can be clued in and transfer 401K funds before the worst hits. Wall Street has shown us they stand behind an extreme right-wing agenda by the insane exuberance since the election. The 60% of voters who didn't vote for Trump can vote again right now by moving their money to a safe harbor... an excellent way to fight back.
#10
2950: I can relate to your frustration. I think where we differ is in our perception of the roles played by the two "sanctioned" parties. You state "We won't be able to change things until we get control of the message." To me, that sounds a lot like " how can we (the Democrats) 'out-message' our adversaries, the Republicans". Isn't this just political gamesmanship?
In my mind, both parties are equally culpable in perpetuating the great economic divide that separates the "haves" from the "have nots". The Republicans are unabashed in their promotion of a meritocracy. The Democrats differ only in that they promote an agenda of providing some minimal subsistance level of survival for the unfortunate third of our population that would starve to death otherwise. Beyond this, the real action is at the top. Neither of these two parties deserves a second look by anyone genuinely interested in economic justice, starting with tax reform, extending through education and ending with a total restructuring of our national budget, which would include halving of our annual "defense" budget and redirecting the $500 BILLION thus saved toward rebuilding our infrastructure.
We need an entirely new political paradigm. Which is to say, a viable third party.
#11
Outback: I have nothing against a Democratic Socialist third party and even think Bernie is still capable of future success along these lines. That said, I still feel strongly that without a way to communicate truth to the populous it won't matter how effective Bernie's message is...look how the corp media has shut him down so easily. Bernie remains the only Democrat my foxmerized friends have ever had a fond word for.
#12
Bernie Sanders was not a Democrat, he is a Socialist, thus his appeal to those who abhor honest work and expect others to pay for their free stuff.
#13
2950: I know from your previous posts that you don't oppose a third party and are a Bernie fan. So am I. And you're right, the mainstream media acts today as a megaphone for wealthy special interests. A misinformed electorate will make the wrong choices every time. The only remedy for our "media misinformation problem" is to support alternative media wherever we can find it. This media is identifiable to anyone with a modicum of critical thinking ability by its balanced, objective coverage of issues and events.
Dianereynolds: If you think Socialism is all about a bunch of freeloading ethnic minorities that won't work, you are woefully misinformed. As Sanders has correctly pointed out, the socialist democracies in Scandanavia enjoy a higher standard of living on average than we do, have free universal (and superior) health care, and their populations poll consistently happier than people in the USA. How do you feel about "corporate welfare", where companies like GE pay no taxes, collect dividends from Uncle Sam at the end of the year and stash their profits off shore? Oh, I see, these companies are headed up by rich white guys that, like Trump, are proven to be "smart" because they know how to game the system. Beautiful!
#14
Yeah, "The Donald" is sending more troops but he's changing some of rules to confuse the bad guys. Uh, no it won't. Groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda, ISIS are basically running a low cost operation. Heck, most of their material is given to them (in some cases buy us!). Let's not forget that these nations are very well versed in L-O-N-G protracted wars----ask the British! Even Alexander the Great coud never subdue these tribes. Nevertheless, I think all this is about the ruling elite, the Oligarchs. They want this to continue. If they didn't, it would be over by lunch. They find the war(s) very profitable. They are good for periodic distractions, and they keep an otherwise sluggish economy on a near-like wartime footing, which, again, is good for their bottomline. Besides, war is a great way to "bleed off" what would otherwise be unemployeed (and likely unruly) workers. This keeps their numbers down. Nope, we are committed to Iraq, Afganistan, and damn near everywhere else as long as it's profitable. Meanwhile, we have other artifical distrations and manufactured divisions to occupy us. Afterall, they wouldn't want a united America looking lifting the curtain now would they?
#15
There ar many ways to impeach the SOB, con man, liar and so forth. We need all of the people, except for the Rumpterds, to write their congressmen to imeach Rumpty Dumpty, idiot extradinary.
#16
@ #15
"imeach"
"Rumpterds"
"idiot extradinary"
Priceless
#17
nicely put. thanks.
this was in response to starry's comment...
#18
yeah walkerco...skim the surface, why don't you...the stills quote won't mitigate the fact that you don't seem to understand a larger picture...read the other replies is my suggestion...
#19
hey d...i'd flag this as offensive but i'd rather explain why...while that opinion(whether it's yours or not) might be held by many, it, to me seems the product of ignorance. ignore- ance...ever hear of a country called Holland...? how about the Netherlands? i could tick off a few more if you'd like...socialist at the core...
now go look at your country in comparison with everything that has to do with 'quality of life'. hunger/homelessness/health care/educational potential/employment/stress factors re: health...
then maybe you'll actually have something worthwhile to contribute, ok? instead of some anemic, reflexive mouth/tongue/throat/lung tic...(reflexes, in case you aren't aware, don't involve the brain. and clearly this was just parroted with, not only no supporting evidence, but also LOTS of contrary evidence...). and wasting peoples time with something like this, that's supposed to pass for truth/information, is, or at least SHOULD be, offensive...thanks for listening...
oh...sorry diane...i hope my spelling's ok...don't want to give you an excuse to sidestep the important stuff...typical tactic from those with nothing to say worth hearing...
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This is similar to my perceptions of Trump that I may have recently posted here. However, while I have revised it somewhat, it is still pertinent to President Goofballs lates BS.
I miss President Obama’s refreshing negotiating liberal leadership after the George W. Bush tough-guy’s invented war.
Conservatives are not well-equipped for complex situations we now face where the terrorist enemy is hard to determine and find. Conservatives need self-identifying actions like starting wars, which really serve to divert the public’s attention away from the massive wealth inequality that dooms 43 million Americans to poverty with nine million of the poor working full-time. It would be cheaper to pay the enemy to do what we want them to do.
Rather than 16 years of war, $5 trillion, I support liberals who can deal with domestic challenges, like our precarious electrical grid which needs upgrading. Invite conservatives to focus on real problem solving. Problem solvers will never create ideal solutions, but they are better than war-makers who get a lot of Americans killed.
When politicians scapegoat some foreign dictator as a way to divert our attention from our real domestic problems, like upgrading 150,000 drinking water systems, then they are no better than their targets, like North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, condemning his people to militaristic poverty. Some easily-fooled Trump “patriots” need a patriarch and king. Thinking for myself, I do not.