You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Afghanistan
Trump Says U.S.‘Losing' Afghan War in Tense Meeting With Generals
2017-08-03
Posted by:Elmerert Hupens2660

#4  Here are just two examples of ludicrous Western self abasement in Afghanistan put on display for a global audience.

Korans Burnt at Bagram AFB, Afghanistan - Gen John Allen Statement Kabul

NATO in Afghanistan - Petraeus & Sedwill Statement on Burning Holy Qur'An

Watching this, what are the conclusions that Kim Jon Un, Xi Jinping, Putin et al will arrive at?

Will they be more or less likely to take Western warnings seriously?

This madness may or may not save lives in Afghanistan but it increases the risk of disastrous conflicts elsewhere.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2017-08-03 14:44  

#3  The Afghanistan war is still America's and the West's reaction to a massive attack on Western centers of gravity, even if Western leadership seems to have forgotten about this.

The Afghanistan war is globally undermining and eroding Western credibility and Western deterrence as it puts on display Western masochism for a global audience which isn't friendly.

Since October of 2001, when Powell publicly walked back Bush's post 9/11 intent to let the terror supporting Taliban share in the terrorists' fate US policy on 9/11 and Afghanistan has been objectively self-contradictory.

Provocative masochism has consequences. The North Koreans and Chinese have clearly made the strategic decision to regard US threats as empty posturing.

Thus the price for 'success' in Afghanistan may include a WMD war with North Korea, war in Europe and a big war in East Asia.
Posted by: Elmerert Hupens2660   2017-08-03 14:29  

#2  We aren't "losing the war". Our military just isn't designed to "build a nation" out of a sprawling wilderness of remote mountain valleys inhabited by warring, mutually-hostile tribes full of illiterate 6th Century barbarians. It's a fool's errand, and Trump should have the sense to withdraw and leave the place to its own fate.
Posted by: Lone Ranger   2017-08-03 12:14  

#1  There is something childish about Trump: he sees that the king is naked.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2017-08-03 11:08  

00:00