1/ Although he spent 8 years fighting in Iraq & Afghanistan, he is still confused about national strategy. washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/1… Even at the basic level of understanding. Troops remained in Germany & South Korea as a deterrent, something he fails to mention. No one specifies
2/ what "victory" looks like in Afghanistan. The Taliban are winning not because they have better weapons, better tactics, better soldiers. They win because the Afghan government from top to bottom is corrupt to the core. If Americans had thought Washington and Jefferson were
3/ putting public funds into French banks for their personal use, the Revolution would have collapsed and we'd have lost. We spend $100s of million on ghost soldiers and police. The World Bank cannot make the Kabul govt transparent & accountable. No one wants to die for crooks.
4/ So, why are Americans willing to send our troops to Afghanistan? The Taliban did not do 9/11. In fact, before 9/11 the Taliban were cutting poppy production and talking about an oil pipeline with a US company. I'm not for the Taliban, but there are no amount of US & NATO
5/ troops that are going to achieve anything more than at best a stalemate producing virtually nothing. The way we are pulling troops out is very counter-productive to NATO and Kabul. But, no one can justify keeping US troops there to achieve no achievable military mission. If
6/ the Afghans believed in their government and their way of life, the Taliban would have been defeated and reduced to an occasional nuisance, even from their bases in Pakistan. But, Afghans don't believe their government and their way of life and the Taliban's way of life is
7/ only a matter of degrees. Those tribal chiefs would not be educating young girls were it not for Western pressure and dollars/euros. As 2020 approaches, hopefully we will air out our national security strategy, though given the stupid questions the media asked in 2016, that
8/ will probably not happen. The Middle East issue will revolve around who can kiss Bibi's ass the longest and hardest, and who will say tough things about the killer and war criminal MBS but do nothing, esp our role in war crimes in Yemen. Who will enlarge the immigration debate
9/ to look at security, income inequality, and jobs in Mexico & Central America, as well as labor market flows between the US and Central America? Who will have the guts to end the War on Drugs, that will also help stop the violence south of our border? Trump is a blunt force
10/ instrument producing international trauma, but 17 years after 9/11, our national security elites have some explaining to do and a reckoning at the polls. 17 years of one fuck-up after another. 17 years of failing to explain what we are trying to achieve anywhere. 17 years of
11/ fighting terrorism only to be told we neglected the real needs of our conventional and future battlefield weapons. Whose fault was that? The US public or the national security elites who loved the 9/11 gravy train that made the suburbs of DC recession-proof? END
