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I realize he know has the power to do a lot on his own ...but... What I think is going to occur here is that he will present to Trump two plans if he has not already. One for a winning strategy including ultimatums to Pakistan and one for an exit.
If there is one lesson that should of been learned from Vietnam is you are either all in or all out. The consequences of leaving Afghanistan are enormous and basing the decision on this because of the failed policies of the last two administrations is not a god idea. I say that with the realization that a lot of US soldiers have given their lives there and more will if we stay.
On the other hand you now have someone that knows how to prosecute a war like this that will make no compromises on the lives of his soldiers.
I know one thing, if I'm a radical Islamist in Afghanistan or the tribal lands of Pakistan I'm digging myself a much bigger hole. Mattis will go in there and either make peace or kill them all.
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WE are 16 years into this war, we are clearly not winning,
We are not winning because you can't fight a war by ***** footing around.You have the idiots in the Bush administration that seemed to get amnesia and forgot about Afghanistan and then decided to involve us in the biggest boondoggle of all time. Then you have Obama who should of just pulled out instead of the strategy he insisted upon.
President Trump, PLEASE remove ALL of our troops from the Middle East.
That our troops are still dying over in places like Afghanistan is an insult to all decent Americans.
The architects of 9/11 are all dead and gone. Those who harbored Laden are gone.
We have ZERO purpose being in Afghanistan.
Billions upon BILLIONS of dollars have been lost without a trace supporting the pointless war in Afghanistan. Fix our OWN problems FIRST.
America first!
If we leave there realize what will happen. It is going to make ISIS in Syria and Iraq look like some kind of joke. ISIS is going to move right in AND there is not going to be thing we are going to do about it. They are going to know that too.
In the interest of potential conspiracy theories...why is it that Russia and the the USA spent so much time, money, and lost lives in Afghanistan....what's there that the big boys want so badly? Is there alien buried technology in the mountains? Why haven't we left for 16 freaking years?
McCain, got rather upset with Mattis arguing that the USA needs a new plan fast.
WE are 16 years into this war, we are clearly not winning, and we are breeding more opponents not less.
Afghans don't seem to be deeply motivated to fight hard and certainly not willing to enter a large scale conflict whatever about defending lands held.
WE have tried just about everything the US public is willing to accept
We are not grinding anyone down.
We are not prepared to fight Pakistan.
This war is unwinnable in its current form.
Is it time to just leave?
A change of leaders, strategy and very directed use of the military unleashed without hands tied behind their back would be a viable alternative. GWB had Afghanistan under control and then changed focus to Iraq.
'At the same time, (Obama) added, “the counterterrorism challenges are real.” As bleak as Afghanistan’s prospects were, the United States could not afford to walk away and allow the country to become a seedbed for extremists again. A few weeks later, the president halted the withdrawal and announced that he would leave thousands of American troops in the country indefinitely.
It was a crucial turning point in the evolution of Barack Obama. The antiwar candidate of 2008 who had pledged to turn around Afghanistan — the “good war” to George W. Bush’s “bad war” in Iraq — had conceded that the longest military operation in American history would not end on his watch. The optimistic president who once thought Afghanistan was winnable had, through bitter experience, become the commander in chief of a forever war.'
In the interest of potential conspiracy theories...why is it that Russia and the the USA spent so much time, money, and lost lives in Afghanistan....what's there that the big boys want so badly? Is there alien buried technology in the mountains? Why haven't we left for 16 freaking years?
If anyone is wondering why the US is really involved in Afghanistan....
The aerial surveys determined that Afghanistan may hold 60 million tons of copper, 2.2 billion tons of iron ore, 1.4 million tons of rare earth elements such as lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, and lodes of aluminum, gold, silver, zinc, mercury and lithium.
Of course the reaction will be to double down on the stupidty of our involvement in a no-win situation.
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