Cadet Bonespurs: The Military Genius!

[Minimalist]

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/world...ion=Footer

Newest U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan Mirrors Past Plans for Retreat

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is urging American-backed Afghan troops to retreat from sparsely populated areas of the country, officials said, all but ensuring the Taliban will remain in control of vast stretches of the country.

The withdrawal resembles strategies embraced by both the Bush and Obama administrations that have started and stuttered over the nearly 17-year war. It will effectively ensure that the Taliban and other insurgent groups will hold on to territory that they have already seized, leaving the government in Kabul to safeguard the capital and cities such as Kandahar, Kunduz, Mazar-i-Sharif and Jalalabad.

The retreat to the cities is a searing acknowledgment that the American-installed government in Afghanistan remains unable to lead and protect the country’s sprawling rural population. Over the years, as waves of American and NATO troops have come and left in repeated cycles, the government has slowly retrenched and ceded chunks of territory to the Taliban, cleaving Afghanistan into disparate parts and ensuring a conflict with no end in sight.

When he announced his new war strategy last year, Mr. Trump declared that Taliban and Islamic State insurgents in Afghanistan “need to know they have nowhere to hide, that no place is beyond the reach of American might and American arms.”

[Angrboda]

Meh. God bless 'em. I think it's probably best that Afghanistan find its own way in the world, now that the immediate goal of muting Al-Qaeda is behind us.

As for terrorism, the Middle East seems a perennial breeding ground which I would rather not become a preoccupation of American foreign policy. I have, for better or worse, resigned myself to the notion that terrorism is just an inevitable and unavoidable fact of modern life. I may not like that fact, but I see no good way to avoid it. Certainly not by regularly invading countries, engaging in nation-building, the setting up of unwanted puppet regimes, and the continued investment in military solutions.

[Minimalist]

But...but...but... it was just about a year ago that Cadet Bonespurs told us all about his plan for defeating the Taliban.  How could such a stable genius have fucked up so badly?

https://wgntv.com/2017/08/22/5-key-piece...stan-plan/

5 key pieces of President Trump’s Afghanistan plan

I think he's full of shit.

[TaraJo]

Meh.  God bless 'em.  I think it's probably best that Afghanistan find its own way in the world, now that the immediate goal of muting Al-Qaeda is behind us.

Agreed.  Americas foreign policy has been WAY too focused on military interventionism and most of it is largely unnecessary, especially since the cold war is over and there are no significant threats to America.  I can't help but think, if Americas military and European interests weren't so involved in middle east politics, it's entirely possible that they wouldn't hate us all so much over there and 9/11 might never have happened.