Key points from Trump’s speech.
1. American soldiers are really, really, really cool! The best in the world! Yay, us!
2. American soldiers are completely unified and have never had any divisions, and that is so, so wonderful. (Ignore that women in the military were highly controversial and divisive and still are, that blacks in the military were highly controversial and divisive, that gays in the military were and are highly controversial and divisive, that any transgender soldiers in the audience have no idea if they’ll be allowed to be in the military in a week or a month or a year, and let’s not even talk about the non-citizens who are also tenuously still in the military).
3. If only our nation could be as united and loving and loyal to one another as the military is. If only there weren’t all these darned divisions.
4. (Please ignore my past mockery of President Obama using a teleprompter, but it helps me sound presidential.)
5. So about the war … it’s being going on a long time. In case you hadn’t noticed.
6. Rebuilding countries is stoopid and expensive. We just want our safety and their money.
7. It’s a good thing I’m a detailed study guy, and I’ve been studying and studying, and I’ve made decisions.
8. (Did you know that “Asia,” like “China,” has three syllables?)
9. First, we need an “honorable and enduring outcome,” so we need a victory.
10. Second, a rapid exit (like that guy did in Iraq) will leave a vacuum. We want to do whatever is necessary to make sure that the bad guys won’t win after we leave.
11. Third, there are a lot of bad terrorist guys in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan is being a bad country. And they have nukes.
12. I’ve inherited a real mess. I was given a bad hand, but I can handle those big and intricate problems and solve them.
13. It’s not going to be a hasty withdrawal. Don’t expect anything hasty, or soon, or any time you can mark on your calendar.
14. We will destroy terrorists. They are bad people. And nobody will want to join them.
15. We will learn from history, aside from the history that says nobody from outside wins in Afghanistan.
16. We will not have schedules. We will have conditions. So, again, don’t mark your calendar.
17. Oh, and we won’t tell anyone how many troops we are sending. Because if anyone in the US knows, then the enemies will know.
18. Maybe we can eventually have the Taliban in negotiations. But nobody knows when it will happen. Might be never.
19. Afghanistan has to rule its own society. We won’t dictate to them how to live or govern. We are not nation-building.
20. Pakistan has been sheltering terrorists. So we’re going to ally more with India. Especially if they can help pay for economic development there.
21. I’m going to take the reins off of the military to let them do whatever they want to kill the bad guys. Because what could possibly go wrong.
22. Hey, I won the battle of Mosul! Record-breaking success!
23. We’re going to use overwhelming force. That might imply we’ll be bumping up troop levels, but we’ll never tell.
24. Oh, and NATO will help pay for it and send troops. I’ve made that clear. And they’re happy to do it.
25. We are going to make Afghanistan pay for this, too.
26. We expect Afghanistan to develop a good, productive society. But we won’t tell them what to do. We’ll just help defend our economic interests there.
27. (Women’s rights in Afghanistan? Pish-tosh. That’s nation-building.)
28. Our commitment to Afghanistan is limited. Even though we intend to wind. But Afghanistan has to pay their own share. Even if we want to win. But if they aren’t winning, then we won’t give them a blank check.
29. We will make common cause with any nation fighting against this global threat. Because human rights? Who can afford that?
30. I’m spending vast amount on our nuclear arsenal and missile defense.
31. We always win!
32. Arlington National Cemetery is the most spiffy place in the world because our soldiers are better people than any others in the world.
33. We must stand together and be unified, otherwise we are betraying our troops and America. You’ve been warned.
Read the Full Text of President Trump’s Afghanistan Remarks – The Atlantic
“No place is beyond the reach of American might and American arms.”
He's on psych meds now….
+Christine Felixon He was certainly low-key — but he always is when he's reading a teleprompter speech.
Or exhausted.
+Dave Hill I watched and it most certainly looked like he's been given Seraquel. Look the med up please
+Dean Barnett I think this explains what he said.
+Christine Felixon SSRI?
Yeah that sums it up….. as much as any jumble could be summed up… To give the condensed version…. I am doing what ever I want and I am not telling you so you can't blame me.
+Linda Tewes Worse
+Hunter Seeker Correction: I'm not telling you so I can blame everyone else when it all goes to hell.
+Linda Tewes LOL pretty much means the same thing to Donnie
It is always about the money,
nytimes.com – U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – The New York Times
I think Afghanistan has a lot of mineral resources of interest to US. Nation building may be a meaningful pursuit there. It would help engage a huge workforce and even entice distracted groups to seek a better livelihood through constructive pursuits.
+Sowmyan Tirumurti +Brian Fitzgerald It was clear (to me, at least) that the naked pursuit of money for American business was the key under-the-covers item here. The nation-building goal goes away — indeed, in that scenario, American business interests have no desire for an actual strong representative government that might interfere with American extraction businesses; as long as the local warlords are on the payroll (as backed up by the US military), I'm sure the assumption is that any extraction business can do its work, pay them a cut, and make a handy profit.
And here it is
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/lQChyTKcHaIFApNq4dTQN60lEoEZcOyHWxGd8-XOQ43YfQslI2vMAbU2-gToeRcsdLOHcXRC_Pg
Hard to watch all those military people stand up and applaud smiling after he just said he was sending them back to the meat grinder with no end in sight. Their silence would have said so much…. The rally today was just disgusting. dont know what to say?