Article

2018-12-22 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Ret. Gen. Keane on Syria Withdrawal: President ‘Will Come to Regret This Decision'

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Posted by Besoeker 2018-12-22 05:14|| || Front Page|| [12 views ] Top

#1 "I don't discuss any conversations I may have with the president. All I can say is that I do hope he reconsiders," Keane told Fox News host Martha MacCallum. "I'm convinced that if he doesn't reconsider, he will come to regret it."

Heads up Fox News viewers, I have the ear of the president, of Gaia, Pachamama, Putin, and Shakti.

Instead of saluting and offering solutions and complimenting strategies which could lead to success, the general piles on. Perhaps Gen. Keane should resign from Fox News in protest.

Posted by Besoeker 2018-12-22 05:25|| 2018-12-22 05:25|| Front Page Top

#2 For Rantburg posters, I guess nothing is worse than being right when Trump is wrong.

Even the best Presidents make mistakes. Admit it, he is making a mistake here. Not in pulling away from Syria, but in how he is doing it. Just like Obama and Iraq. I recall reading many here being critical of how that was done. Same applies here.

Bailing out suddenly and completely will leave a mess, which will be exploited by our enemies (Iran, Turkey, Russia), and our allies, especially the Kurds, will be screwed by them.

You cant deny that. And you can't deny that Trump means well by bringing the troops home, but he is making a big mistake in how he is doing it. Cut and run is not how to do it.

Posted by Injun Bucket8891 2018-12-22 09:34|| 2018-12-22 09:34|| Front Page Top

#3 From Instaprof -

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Ours To Reason Why.

If there’s one good thing about the political crisis triggered Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria it’s been to make people realize the US is there. As Seth Harp in the New Yorker noted, it has done everything possible to conceal that fact. . . .

Perhaps more people than were ever aware of the combat presence in Syria are outraged the US is leaving it and that is a good thing. The lack of awareness was the result of the breakdown of the national security debate and the abdication by Congress of its role in war making. The public is now like a man waking up in a strange city with a 3 week growth of beard with no memory of how he got there.

As the Los Angeles Times noted the US inherited a whole bunch of shadow wars from the past administrations. “Before he took office in 2008, Barack Obama vowed to end America’s grueling conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his second term, he pledged to take the country off what he called a permanent war footing. … U.S. military forces have been at war for all eight years of Obama’s tenure, the first two-term president with that distinction. He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.”

But they all went into the back pages.

Somehow withdrawing back Iraq doesn't seem like withdrawing back to the US. Get a grip.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-12-22 10:04|| 2018-12-22 10:04|| Front Page Top

#4 The public is now like a man waking up in a strange city with a 3 week growth of beard with no memory of how he got there.

Amen and amen (both the "man" and the MEDIA).

Posted by Besoeker 2018-12-22 10:05|| 2018-12-22 10:05|| Front Page Top

#5 Any thoughts on Gen. Vincent Brooks as a Gen. Mattis replacement??

Posted by JohnQC 2018-12-22 11:01|| 2018-12-22 11:01|| Front Page Top

#6 Another cold war general outliving his usefulness...

Posted by 49 Pan 2018-12-22 11:05|| 2018-12-22 11:05|| Front Page Top

#7 Don't forget the entertainment factor.

Posted by Procopius2k 2018-12-22 11:08|| 2018-12-22 11:08|| Front Page Top

#8 So did Keane go into any detail about why we would regret this?

Or why we wouldn't regret staying in Syria even more?

The vague "ooga booga" quality of statements like
"I'm convinced that if he doesn't reconsider, he will come to regret it." doesn't impress me much.

And I'm long past the fallacious "He wears/wore a uniform so we're required to genuflect" mentality that afflicts many on the right.

John Kerry was a war hero, you know.

Posted by charger 2018-12-22 12:53|| 2018-12-22 12:53|| Front Page Top

#9 #8 is the not-spoken-nearly-enough truth of the day.

Posted by M. Murcek 2018-12-22 13:00|| 2018-12-22 13:00|| Front Page Top

#10 General, just spare me the Delphic Oracle prognostications:
“Give me a one-handed Economist. All my economists say 'on hand...', then 'but on the other...” ― Harry Truman

Posted by magpie 2018-12-22 19:29|| 2018-12-22 19:29|| Front Page Top

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