reedak
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2014
- Messages
- 757
1. There is a difference between peace and retreat. The Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban represents a full retreat. It’s an agreement that most Republicans would deplore if a Democrat president made the deal, and they’d be right to be angry.
Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. There is no meaningful argument that the fate of Afghanistan is somehow irrelevant to our national security. The War in Afghanistan was no “war of choice.” On 9/11 our nation suffered its worst attack since Pearl Harbor. It suffered its worst attack on an American city since the British burned Washington D.C. on August 24, 1814, and the Taliban were intimately involved. That attack came from an enemy operating with the permission and under the protection of the same Taliban the Trump administration deals with today.
....there is no hope for peace when your opponent intends to continue the fight, and the hope for peace diminishes further still when the proposed peace agreement diminishes allies and strengthens your enemies.
If you read the peace agreement itself, you’ll note immediately that it gives the Taliban a series of concrete, measurable gifts. First, there’s an immediate allied withdrawal – down to 8,600 American troops (and proportionate numbers of allied troops) within 135 days. The remainder of American and allied forces will leave within 14 months.
At the same time, the United States will immediately and substantially reinforce the Taliban by seeking the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 20. Even worse, the United States further agreed to a goal of “releasing all remaining prisoners over the course of the subsequent three months.” It will do this at the same time that it commits to the “goal” of removing sanctions from members of the Taliban that include travel bans, asset freezes, and an arms embargo.
The combination of the planned American retreat and the planned prisoner release would represent a substantial change in the balance of forces in Afghanistan. This would come without any agreement by the Taliban to cease hostilities against our allies.
At this point, the deal looks worse than a simple withdrawal. America can leave all on its own without also agreeing to seek the release of Taliban prisoners. It can leave all on its own without promising to ease sanctions. So why agree to the additional concessions?
America is making these concrete concessions in exchange for unenforceable promises from an untrustworthy enemy. The Taliban promise that they will not allow its members or members of al-Qaeda to use Afghan soil to threaten American national security. The promise to “send a clear message” that those who threaten the United States “have no place in Afghanistan.” Yet the agreement released to the public provides no verification or enforcement provisions for these assurances, and once America is out of Afghanistan, our ability to enforce those promises absent a new, substantial military buildup will be limited to nonexistent......
A war-weary American public should resist the Trump administration’s retreat. It should not tolerate any agreement that reinforces and strengthens the Taliban. There are things that are worse than “endless war,” and if we doubt that truth, there is a memorial in downtown Manhattan that should remind us that mortal threats can emerge even from the farthest reaches of the earth.
Source: https://time.com/5794643/trumps-disgraceful-peace-deal-taliban/
2(a) Americans are tired of “endless war” in Afghanistan, but there is absolutely no way for US troops to make an honourable exit from Afghanistan, just as in the Vietnam War. Why didn't the stalwart aides and confidants of the self-declared "Messiah" ex-president (who was called a ***** by his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson) resist his disgraceful peace deal with the Taliban?
If he really wanted to get Americans out of Afghanistan, he could have done it within his term of office. Instead, in a prime-time address before a crowd of US troops in August 2017, he vowed the US would "fight to win" in Afghanistan, extending the 16-year campaign there with a promise to beef up the American military presence while ratcheting up pressure on other countries in the region to help turn the tide.
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/trump-afghanistan-speech/index.html
(b) In July 2019 the "Me First" ex-president claimed he could win the war in Afghanistan "in a week", but he did not want to kill 10 million people.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-could-win-war-in-afghanistan-in-a-week-2019-7
Then in late February 2020, "the Art of the Deal" ex-president suddenly made a quick about-turn by brokering a "historic peace agreement" with the Taliban.
(c) There were indications in early 2020 that the self-declared “Messiah” ex-president was apprehensive about his reelection prospects because the pandemic shut down the country and halted all in-person campaigning. One of the contributing factors of his success in the 2016 presidential election was his inborn talent for rabble-rousing. The raging pandemic prevented all candidates from holding mass rallies. His Tulsa rally was a flop.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/21/opinions/trump-rally-tulsa-oklahoma-covid-19-ghitis/index.html
(d) His disgraceful peace deal looked suspicious as it "gave the Taliban a series of concrete, measurable gifts" while his chances of reelection were slipping away. The timing of his troop withdrawal was even more suspicious as he scheduled it in such a way that the responsibility of implementing it fell on the shoulders of the next president.
In a statement released April 18, 2021, the "Me First" ex-president hailed getting out of Afghanistan as a "wonderful and positive thing to do,"....
"I planned to withdraw on May 1st (2021), and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible," Trump said in a statement that has since been deleted from his official website. Seem like the revisionist history bug is catching in GOP circles.
Trump has repeatedly patted himself on the back for his expert deal-making skills with the Taliban. If getting out of Afghanistan is such a "wonderful and positive thing to do", why didn't the "Me First" ex-president take all the credit by withdrawing all American and allied forces by 2020? Instead he was so generous that he let Biden "inherit" his deal by "locking" him (Biden) into a timeline (May 1st 2021) for withdrawal. "Inheritance" is for children, not political rivals or bitter enemies.
https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/trump-peace-deal-taliban/
Let’s begin with the elephant in the room. There is no meaningful argument that the fate of Afghanistan is somehow irrelevant to our national security. The War in Afghanistan was no “war of choice.” On 9/11 our nation suffered its worst attack since Pearl Harbor. It suffered its worst attack on an American city since the British burned Washington D.C. on August 24, 1814, and the Taliban were intimately involved. That attack came from an enemy operating with the permission and under the protection of the same Taliban the Trump administration deals with today.
....there is no hope for peace when your opponent intends to continue the fight, and the hope for peace diminishes further still when the proposed peace agreement diminishes allies and strengthens your enemies.
If you read the peace agreement itself, you’ll note immediately that it gives the Taliban a series of concrete, measurable gifts. First, there’s an immediate allied withdrawal – down to 8,600 American troops (and proportionate numbers of allied troops) within 135 days. The remainder of American and allied forces will leave within 14 months.
At the same time, the United States will immediately and substantially reinforce the Taliban by seeking the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners by March 20. Even worse, the United States further agreed to a goal of “releasing all remaining prisoners over the course of the subsequent three months.” It will do this at the same time that it commits to the “goal” of removing sanctions from members of the Taliban that include travel bans, asset freezes, and an arms embargo.
The combination of the planned American retreat and the planned prisoner release would represent a substantial change in the balance of forces in Afghanistan. This would come without any agreement by the Taliban to cease hostilities against our allies.
At this point, the deal looks worse than a simple withdrawal. America can leave all on its own without also agreeing to seek the release of Taliban prisoners. It can leave all on its own without promising to ease sanctions. So why agree to the additional concessions?
America is making these concrete concessions in exchange for unenforceable promises from an untrustworthy enemy. The Taliban promise that they will not allow its members or members of al-Qaeda to use Afghan soil to threaten American national security. The promise to “send a clear message” that those who threaten the United States “have no place in Afghanistan.” Yet the agreement released to the public provides no verification or enforcement provisions for these assurances, and once America is out of Afghanistan, our ability to enforce those promises absent a new, substantial military buildup will be limited to nonexistent......
A war-weary American public should resist the Trump administration’s retreat. It should not tolerate any agreement that reinforces and strengthens the Taliban. There are things that are worse than “endless war,” and if we doubt that truth, there is a memorial in downtown Manhattan that should remind us that mortal threats can emerge even from the farthest reaches of the earth.
Source: https://time.com/5794643/trumps-disgraceful-peace-deal-taliban/
2(a) Americans are tired of “endless war” in Afghanistan, but there is absolutely no way for US troops to make an honourable exit from Afghanistan, just as in the Vietnam War. Why didn't the stalwart aides and confidants of the self-declared "Messiah" ex-president (who was called a ***** by his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson) resist his disgraceful peace deal with the Taliban?
If he really wanted to get Americans out of Afghanistan, he could have done it within his term of office. Instead, in a prime-time address before a crowd of US troops in August 2017, he vowed the US would "fight to win" in Afghanistan, extending the 16-year campaign there with a promise to beef up the American military presence while ratcheting up pressure on other countries in the region to help turn the tide.
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/trump-afghanistan-speech/index.html
(b) In July 2019 the "Me First" ex-president claimed he could win the war in Afghanistan "in a week", but he did not want to kill 10 million people.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-says-could-win-war-in-afghanistan-in-a-week-2019-7
Then in late February 2020, "the Art of the Deal" ex-president suddenly made a quick about-turn by brokering a "historic peace agreement" with the Taliban.
(c) There were indications in early 2020 that the self-declared “Messiah” ex-president was apprehensive about his reelection prospects because the pandemic shut down the country and halted all in-person campaigning. One of the contributing factors of his success in the 2016 presidential election was his inborn talent for rabble-rousing. The raging pandemic prevented all candidates from holding mass rallies. His Tulsa rally was a flop.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/21/opinions/trump-rally-tulsa-oklahoma-covid-19-ghitis/index.html
(d) His disgraceful peace deal looked suspicious as it "gave the Taliban a series of concrete, measurable gifts" while his chances of reelection were slipping away. The timing of his troop withdrawal was even more suspicious as he scheduled it in such a way that the responsibility of implementing it fell on the shoulders of the next president.
In a statement released April 18, 2021, the "Me First" ex-president hailed getting out of Afghanistan as a "wonderful and positive thing to do,"....
"I planned to withdraw on May 1st (2021), and we should keep as close to that schedule as possible," Trump said in a statement that has since been deleted from his official website. Seem like the revisionist history bug is catching in GOP circles.
Trump has repeatedly patted himself on the back for his expert deal-making skills with the Taliban. If getting out of Afghanistan is such a "wonderful and positive thing to do", why didn't the "Me First" ex-president take all the credit by withdrawing all American and allied forces by 2020? Instead he was so generous that he let Biden "inherit" his deal by "locking" him (Biden) into a timeline (May 1st 2021) for withdrawal. "Inheritance" is for children, not political rivals or bitter enemies.
https://www.alternet.org/2021/08/trump-peace-deal-taliban/
