Agree with all. Fingers crossed he pulls us out of this dump before more lives & treasure are spent for nothing. If it were up to the generals, they’d keep us here forever.
February 05, 2019, 09:24 AM
Doc H.
quote:
Originally posted by arabiancowboy: Agree with all. Fingers crossed he pulls us out of this dump before more lives & treasure are spent for nothing. If it were up to the generals, they’d keep us here forever.
This. There is no incentive for career politicians in uniform to stop doing what they are paid to do. There never has been. And Afghanistan is the Black Hole of conflicts - it has eaten entire nations throughout history, and the only successful interlopers in this innocent-looking patch of desert and rock - that's how you get sucked in, in spite of the history you should know - have left before they, too, were consumed.
"And gentlemen in England now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day"
February 05, 2019, 09:44 AM
mark_a
It makes me sad that there are kids who will graduate high school this year who've never lived when we weren't at war.
Beyond the career generals, there is a shit-ton of money being made by the defense industry. They are so intertwined with the .gov as to almost be indistinguishable.
I think it is past time to pretty much pull everyone. I think we should ramp intelligence folks on the ground way the hell up and let them do their job and keep us informed. If something substantial develops that can't be dealt with by missles or bombs then we take fresh troops in, blow them problem to hell and gone and leave. The middle east is a sucking black hole of death. It always has been and always will be.
February 05, 2019, 09:57 AM
arabiancowboy
quote:
Originally posted by mark_a: I think we should ramp intelligence folks on the ground way the hell up and let them do their job and keep us informed. If something substantial develops that can't be dealt with by missles or bombs then we take fresh troops in, blow them problem to hell and gone and leave. The middle east is a sucking black hole of death. It always has been and always will be.
We should not be ramping anything up, especially intel & strike aircraft. We have more than enough. The thing we lack is political will to crush our enemies with the brutality required to actually be victorious. Since we won’t burn villages like we did to the Apache or Comanche, we won’t win and gain nothing by staying. More intel analysts won’t help, and it’s impractical to send them without the force protection & logistics required to sustain them. And once you send all those jabronies, we’re back to where we are now.
Time to pack our shit and leave. Wholesale withdraw is the only solution we are capable of executing.
February 05, 2019, 10:03 AM
BamaJeepster
A California judge yesterday dismissed the Stormy Daniels defamation suit against Michael Cohen and Donald Trump with prejudice.
“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” - John Adams
February 05, 2019, 10:12 AM
Pipe Smoker
^^^^^^^^ A California judge, no less.
Serious about crackers
February 05, 2019, 10:20 AM
Gustofer
quote:
Originally posted by mark_a: It makes me sad that there are kids who will graduate high school this year who've never lived when we weren't at war.
It is the human condition.
As Santayana said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war".
quote:
Originally posted by arabiancowboy: Time to pack our shit and leave. Wholesale withdraw is the only solution we are capable of executing.
I questioned the wisdom of going there full-on in October of 2001. There wasn't then, and there isn't now, anything to win.
What we needed to do then, and now, is blow up terrorists. That's it, and it does not require an occupying army. Station a certain number of special ops folks there and give them free reign to do what they do - kill folks who need killing and blow shit up. Everything, and everybody, else needs to come home.
________________________________________________________ "Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
Newt Gingrich: Trump and the trivialists -- After State of the Union speech I challenge you to do this
The theme of President Trump’s State of the Union is going to be “choosing greatness.”
Following on an election in which “Make America Great Again” was a primary theme – remember the campaign hats said MAGA, not Trump, there is a certain logic to President Trump emphasizing that Americans should move beyond vicious partisanship and “choose greatness” for their country......
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February 05, 2019, 10:57 AM
nhtagmember
apparently the democrats want a compromise on border security
I see this as a binary problem - its either secure or its not
"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people and I require the same from them." - John Wayne in "The Shootist"
February 05, 2019, 03:44 PM
Gustofer
I'd choose #3.
________________________________________________________ "Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
February 05, 2019, 03:45 PM
chellim1
quote:
Originally posted by arabiancowboy: Good article.
I am hopeful that President Trump announces a significant withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s time to leave, and no one else has the balls to say the truth: “it won’t get any better out there. This is as good as we can accomplish. Time to go.”
Actually... Rand Paul does have the balls to say the truth:
Senator Rand Paul Calls Out Mitch McConnell for Undermining President Trump
Senator Rand Paul delivers a righteous speech supporting President Trump’s decision to begin removing the US military from the Middle East, and calling out Mitch McConnell and the UniParty for undermining the president. Rand is fired up.
MUST WATCH:
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown
"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor
February 05, 2019, 04:39 PM
Jimbo54
Excellent video chellim1. Rand Paul nailed it. We have done everything we can over there and we are just wasting money and lives with no improvement. Afghanistan will remain a shithole from now till eternity and us staying there will never change that.
Jim
________________________
"If you can't be a good example, then you'll have to be a horrible warning" -Catherine Aird
February 05, 2019, 06:12 PM
smschulz
Great speech by Paul. It is time to leave, nuke 'em on the way out.
February 05, 2019, 06:17 PM
cjevans
With no end in sight, it would be indeed, a good time to withdraw.
We all have memories. Sgt Andrew Russell (SASR), land mine, 16 Feb 2002.
Seventeen years ago, the Coalition aim was to remove the Taliban from power, and deny Al Qaeda a terrorist base of operations.
Today, the Taliban control and contest about 45% of Afghanistan districts. Including Uruzgan.
Time to move on, we tried, but that area will never change. Never has, never will.
We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid." ~ Benjamin Franklin.
"If anyone in this country doesn't minimise their tax, they want their head read, because as a government, you are not spending it that well, that we should be donating extra...: Kerry Packer
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February 05, 2019, 06:28 PM
Gustofer
I generally agree with Rand Paul regarding Afghanistan. However, he, like his kooky father, is very naive in his isolationist views.
People wail about us being the world's policemen and wish to put an end to it and bring everyone home. That is foolish IMO.
I don't think any of us would want to live in a world where we are not the policemen. Make no mistake about it, if we don't do it, Russia, China, or the muslims will. It sucks, but it is the world we now live in.
The argument should actually be about how to better prosecute these foreign actions, not whether we should prosecute them at all.
________________________________________________________ "Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
February 05, 2019, 06:41 PM
slosig
quote:
Originally posted by Gustofer: I'd choose #3.
. I hear you, but I’d choose number 2+.
2+ is doing the 5.7B priority work now, monitoring the results, and reserving the right to add more as needed. I’d guess that there may be some portions where for whatever reason a wall is unnecessary. If that is true, it would be more fiscally prudent to only put in wall where needed.
February 05, 2019, 07:48 PM
2012BOSS302
Donald Trump is not a politician, he is a leader, politicians are a dime a dozen, leaders are priceless.
. I hear you, but I’d choose number 2+.