{"id":134376,"date":"2017-08-21T21:14:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T03:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/21\/donald-trump-and-the-never-ending-war-in-afghanistan.html"},"modified":"2017-08-21T21:29:08","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T03:29:08","slug":"donald-trump-and-the-never-ending-war-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/21\/donald-trump-and-the-never-ending-war-in-afghanistan.html","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump and the Never-Ending War in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Key points from Trump’s speech.<\/p>\n

1. American soldiers are really, really, really cool! The best in the world! Yay, us!<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

4. (Please ignore my past mockery of President Obama using a teleprompter, but it helps me sound presidential.)<\/p>\n

5. So about the war … it’s being going on a long time. In case you hadn’t noticed.<\/p>\n

6. Rebuilding countries is stoopid and expensive. We just want our safety and their money.<\/p>\n

7. It’s a good thing I’m a detailed study guy, and I’ve been studying and studying, and I’ve made decisions.<\/p>\n

8. (Did you know that “Asia,” like “China,” has three syllables?)<\/p>\n

9. First, we need an “honorable and enduring outcome,” so we need a victory.<\/p>\n

10. Second, a rapid exit (like that<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n

11. Third, there are a lot of bad terrorist guys in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan is being a bad country. And they have nukes.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

14. We will destroy terrorists. They are bad people. And nobody will want to join them.<\/p>\n

15. We will learn from history, aside from the history that says nobody from outside wins in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

16. We will not have schedules. We will have conditions. So, again, don’t mark your calendar.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

18. Maybe we can eventually have the Taliban in negotiations. But nobody knows when it will happen. Might be never.<\/p>\n

19. Afghanistan has to rule its own society. We won’t dictate to them how to live or govern. We are not nation-building.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

22. Hey, I won the battle of Mosul! Record-breaking success!<\/p>\n

23. We’re going to use overwhelming force. That might imply we’ll be bumping up troop levels, but we’ll never tell.<\/p>\n

24. Oh, and NATO will help pay for it and send troops. I’ve made that clear. And they’re happy to do it.<\/p>\n

25. We are going to make Afghanistan pay for this, too.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

27. (Women’s rights in Afghanistan? Pish-tosh. That’s nation-building.)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

29. We will make common cause with any nation fighting against this global threat. Because human rights? Who can afford that?<\/p>\n

30. I’m spending vast amount on our nuclear arsenal and missile defense.<\/p>\n

31. We always win!<\/p>\n

32. Arlington National Cemetery is the most spiffy place in the world because our soldiers are better people than any others in the world.<\/p>\n

33. We must stand together and be unified, otherwise we are betraying our troops and America. You’ve been warned.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nRead the Full Text of President Trump’s Afghanistan Remarks – The Atlantic<\/a><\/span>
\n\u201cNo place is beyond the reach of American might and American arms.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading “Donald Trump and the Never-Ending War in Afghanistan”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,10,349,380,1071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-military","category-nationalism-exceptionalism","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/unnamed-4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160814,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2025\/09\/17\/it-makes-a-fella-proud-to-be-a-soldier.html","url_meta":{"origin":134376,"position":0},"title":"It makes a fella proud to be a soldier!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 17-Sep-25 12:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Do grooming standards REALLY \"underpin the warrior ethos\"?","rel":"","context":"In "Health Care"","block_context":{"text":"Health Care","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health-care"},"img":{"alt_text":"Moscow Victory Day Parade","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Moscow-Victory-Day-Parade.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Moscow-Victory-Day-Parade.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Moscow-Victory-Day-Parade.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Moscow-Victory-Day-Parade.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Moscow-Victory-Day-Parade.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Moscow-Victory-Day-Parade.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":134748,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/18\/course-donald-trump-wants-military-parade-4th-july.html","url_meta":{"origin":134376,"position":1},"title":"Because OF COURSE Donald Trump wants a military parade on the 4th of July","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Sep-17 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, if the Russians (and even the French!) do it, why wouldn't Donald want to have a big military parade of his very own? Imagine, all the tanks, and soldiers, and missile carriers, and APCs, and jeeps, and more soldiers, and everyone saluting him at the review stand. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/unnamed-23.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":135868,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/11\/parade-of-mights.html","url_meta":{"origin":134376,"position":2},"title":"Parade of Mights","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Feb-18 12:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am gratified that a vast majority (89%) of Military Times reader respondents (within the bonds of the trustworthiness of any online survey) seem set against Trump's \"Mine Is Bigger Than Yours\" parade, considering it a \"waste\" and that the troops are already \"too busy.\" You know who parades around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/unnamed.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/04\/when_is_a_cop_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":134376,"position":3},"title":"When is a cop not a cop?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-01 7:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"When he's a highly-trained anti-terrorism Marine with a high-powered automatic weapon pointed at your head. The American citizenry is in for some interesting view changes in the coming weeks and...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17409,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/05\/19\/tony-perkins-and-the-evil-gay-military-menace.html","url_meta":{"origin":134376,"position":4},"title":"Tony Perkins and THE EVIL GAY MILITARY MENACE!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-May-10 9:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Tony and the Family Research Council are off and running again on HOW TEH GAYZ ARE GOING TO DESTROY OUR MILITARY!!!!!!!\u00a0 The Axis couldn't do it.\u00a0 The Soviets couldn't do it.\u00a0 But the Gays can!\u00a0 With RAINBOWS! I fervently believe the glorious Star-Spangled Banner should wave over our soldiers, sailors,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/church-and-state.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":134173,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/10\/trump-babbles-transgender-people-military.html","url_meta":{"origin":134376,"position":5},"title":"Trump babbles some more about transgender people in the military","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 10-Aug-17 6:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Back on 26 July, Trump rambled off a prepared (but unexpected) trio of tweets about how transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the military. Apparently he's given the Pentagon no further instruction, no policy guidelines about what to do regarding trans folk already serving, etc. The Pentagon,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "LGBTQ &c"","block_context":{"text":"LGBTQ &c","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gay-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Transgender-Trump-ban-rtr-img1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Transgender-Trump-ban-rtr-img1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Transgender-Trump-ban-rtr-img1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Transgender-Trump-ban-rtr-img1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Transgender-Trump-ban-rtr-img1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Transgender-Trump-ban-rtr-img1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134379,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134376\/revisions\/134379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}