Trump Considers Afghanistan Army Surge

drypowder said:
The Latest Attempt To Win The Afghan War: Replace The Soldiers With Mercenaries

Fast forward to today, and now Blackwater’s founder, former Navy Seal Erik Prince, is pushing for a plan to win the war in Afghanistan by replacing the soldiers with defense contractors. Prince first suggested the plan last May in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, where he described this idea in colonial terms. The private military units would be based on units that were deployed by the British East India Company, and would be lead by a single person who he referred to as an “American Viceroy,” that would report directly to the president.

As strange as it may sound, Trump appears to be taking the idea seriously. It’s hard to blame him. Afghanistan is now America’s longest running war, and no matter how many soldiers, generals, aid, or money we throw at the country, nothing seems to bring stability.
Click to expand...
Here's an interview Stefan Molyneux did with Erik Prince. Pretty interesting. Seems like it could be a much more cost effective option than a troop 'surge', which we've done multiple times already. On the other hand, it might just end up being a special forces skills transfer to the Taliban and ISIS (yes, ISIS has metastasized into Afghanistan).

 
Last edited:
POTUS live right now on path forward in Afghanistan.



Says we are no longer in the business of nation building; not going to build nations in our own image [good, b/c that is impossible across different populations]. Calls out Pakistan on their assistance to, and sheltering of, terrorists.

Very light on specifics in terms of troops, timing - consistent with his earlier repeated comments about not telegraphing moves to the enemy. Says commanders on the ground will have more discretion than under previous administration.
 
Last edited:
Dear President Trump,
If we are not going to just take our Stuff and Go Home, please tell Gen. Mathis what you want the end result to be and then tell him "Go Handle It!". Just have Gen. Mathis tell you what he needs and don't ask him what he plans to do or did. Gen. Mathis would hopefully be resourceful enough to "Handle It" quickly and with minimum loss of American lives. I don't really care if there is a single goat humper left in a vertical position over there afterward, and I doubt many others here do either.

Sincerely,
Me
 
I'm watching msnbc just to watch Andrea Mitchell and Rachel madcow stumble their way threw making it sound like a bad speech.
 
Green Giant said:
Dear President Trump,
If we are not going to just take our Stuff and Go Home, please tell Gen. Mathis what you want the end result to be and then tell him "Go Handle It!". Just have Gen. Mathis tell you what he needs and don't ask him what he plans to do or did. Gen. Mathis would hopefully be resourceful enough to "Handle It" quickly and with minimum loss of American lives. I don't really care if there is a single goat humper left in a vertical position over there afterward, and I doubt many others here do either.

Sincerely,
Me
Click to expand...


Bravo
 
Green Giant said:
Dear President Trump,
If we are not going to just take our Stuff and Go Home, please tell Gen. Mathis what you want the end result to be and then tell him "Go Handle It!". Just have Gen. Mathis tell you what he needs and don't ask him what he plans to do or did. Gen. Mathis would hopefully be resourceful enough to "Handle It" quickly and with minimum loss of American lives. I don't really care if there is a single goat humper left in a vertical position over there afterward, and I doubt many others here do either.

Sincerely,
Me
Click to expand...
Who is Gen. Mathis? Is he currently in charge of the troops in Afghanistan? Commanding Generals change often and it's hard to keep up with who's in chanrge right now.

If you mean the Secretary of Defense who is in overall charge of ALL the military then you must mean General James MATTIS, USMC (Ret). Also affectionately known as "Mad Dog" or the "Warrior Monk".
 
Trump is a self-promoting snake oil salesman w/o any vision or courage. Not one more American life should be spent on this disaster.

The money? So what - he can and will increase taxes on us - not himself or his cronies.
 
Stillwater said:
Trump is a self-promoting snake oil salesman w/o any vision or courage. Not one more American life should be spent on this disaster.

The money? So what - he can and will increase taxes on us - not himself or his cronies.
Click to expand...

Didn't Obama run his 2008 campaign on ending the war?
 
Stillwater said:
... w/o any vision or courage.
Click to expand...

Yea. It was just coincidence he beat all 16 primary candidates that were the best the GOP could put up.

And The Clinton Machine.

In other words, the entire establishment of the most powerful nation on the planet.

Total coincidence.
 
Last edited:
Stillwater said:
Trump is a self-promoting snake oil salesman w/o any vision or courage. Not one more American life should be spent on this disaster.

The money? So what - he can and will increase taxes on us - not himself or his cronies.
Click to expand...

I hear the DNC needs interns, you really should step up and do your part.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HMP
Enjoy endlessly paying in blood and gold for involvement in an endless quagmire. It is not a war in any sense, certainly not a war of self-defense. It is a bizzaro -imperialist occupation where the interests of the imperialist country (US) serve only a very small segment of the populations of both the occupiers and the occupied. Trump is a fool - run from him.
 
MurphyLong said:
You first. I'll hold the door open on your way out.
Click to expand...
I'm already half way to hell and things are looking up!

On a serious note, turning the Afghanistan disaster over to Mathis, McMaster (PhD in History from Carolina BTW) and Kelly is a guarantee that the insanity will persist. They are men of impeccable reputations who are smart, tough and selfless in their service to this country. They are also Uber-Alphas who's whole being is geared to winning at all costs. That's who the system grooms to ascend to the top slots in the military. Normally, say staring down a Soviet Guards Tank Army across the Fulda Gap or completely destroying an Iraqi Republican Guards Tank Division as McMaster did here, that is exactly who you want leading. They all held commands there. My God, Kelly had his oldest son killer there leading an infantry platoon. Does anyone think these guys are going to just leave. Not no, but Hell No. This is where the civilian command authority should make the political decisions that will be in the country's best interest. The Donald has completely abrogated his constitutional duty and set these men up to take the fall when it keeps failing and folks keep dying (mostly Afgans I will point out - its their country, not ours).

We need to put folks in office who can lead.
 
"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact"
 
Chuckman said:
I think Afghanistan is an untenable shit sandwich of epic proportions and we should get the hell out; have a carrier with SOF staged for when they need boots on the ground, but otherwise let those ****************** duke it out on their own.
Click to expand...

Yup.
 
Chuckman said:
Well, we can't have it both ways. Trump--or any other president--would be raked over the coals for ignoring his professional advisors for the sake of political expediency. Trump--or any other president--would be raked over the coals by doing what his advisors suggested, because that's abrogating responsibility. As for his advisors, he has more people at the table with input than any other POTUS I can recall.

TF 58 (Mattis as a 1-star) in Afghanistan, his strategy was to do the job he was given and get the hell out. He said later his goal was to be in A-stan as little as possible. So I think it a bit disingenuous to claim they all want to stay and be warmongers.

I think Afghanistan is an untenable shit sandwich of epic proportions and we should get the hell out; have a carrier with SOF staged for when they need boots on the ground, but otherwise let those backwater inbred goat screwers duke it out on their own.
Click to expand...

I've never met anyone who's been in a war - especially as a combatant , who is a "warmonger". Certainly those gentlemen have seen enough of the horror to understand what hell on Earth is really like. They are career military officers, not Peace Corp workers - no one should expect them to do anything less than bring all the resources at their disposal to destroy the enemy. That is not a recipe for extracting us from Afghanistan.

Your proposal is just another version of endless war - why continue to put our folks in harms way"when they need boots on the ground". If you ever get a chance to go to Afghanistan, you'll find that Afgans are just like us - they want to live their lives and go about their business w/o someone trying to kill them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Stillwater said:
Your proposal is just another version of endless war - why continue to put our folks in harms way"when they need boots on the ground". If you ever get a chance to go to Afghanistan, you'll find that Afgans are just like us - they want to live their lives and go about their business w/o someone trying to kill them.
Click to expand...

There are still gonna be booger-eaters who need to be shot in the face, and they will still use A-stan as a training and launching venue. Sometimes a JDAM or MOAB does the trick; sometimes not, but I think we can be fully engaged in hunting terrorists without the COIN/hearts-and-and minds crap.
 
Let me say this - I don't claim to have any unique insights or special knowledge that anyone on this forum can't also have. How I developed my opinions are part of my journey and really only have meaning to me.

If you really want to try and understand what HR McMaster thinks about counterinsurgency and what he's trying to accomplish in Afghanistan and at the White House, you only have to read the man's book. I have not, but I read his doctoral dissertation when he was at UNC and it served as the basis for the book.

We should be completely out of Afghanistan, but if we have to be in a fight and I get first pick for who's on my team...I'll take McMaster every time.
 
I agree with McMaster being the lead on Afghanistan being the only way we'd ever see any real "progress"
 
I certainly do not want to be there. The only time that stupid war was effective at reaching its military goals was in the first six to nine months with entirely special operations with a little bit of conventional support and air support. But once they started bringing in large conventional units and turning it into a hearts and minds counterinsurgency, it was doomed to failure. It's still be a safe haven for terrorists, and I think we should still have a hard-on to go after the terrorists wherever they are.
 
J R Green said:
I have yet to see anything from you guys debating the issues but rather you just go on an offensive against the messenger.
Click to expand...

You, are outright lying.

When he posted in the monument thread about talking to Chatham County commissioner who said the picture was of county workers relaxing in front of the courthouse burnedoutgeek responded with an news article form a reliable source that absolutely refuted that.

He, much like you when faced with such truths, chose to ignore it and not respond.

Now, living here in Pittsboro, and knowing some of the people in the pictures, I know for a fact that either Stillwater was lying or was lied to by his unnamed "source". The anonymous county commissioner.

You can cherry pick snippets here and there all you want, it is childish, and nothing but a defensive reaction on your part since you have so stalwartly defended unpopular positions before. You will not dictate terms of civility and debate here.

Birds of a feather still get fleas.
 
thrillhill said:
You, are outright lying.

When he posted in the monument thread about talking to Chatham County commissioner who said the picture was of county workers relaxing in front of the courthouse burnedoutgeek responded with an news article form a reliable source that absolutely refuted that.

He, much like you when faced with such truths, chose to ignore it and not respond.

Now, living here in Pittsboro, and knowing some of the people in the pictures, I know for a fact that either Stillwater was lying or was lied to by his unnamed "source". The anonymous county commissioner.

You can cherry pick snippets here and there all you want, it is childish, and nothing but a defensive reaction on your part since you have so stalwartly defended unpopular positions before. You will not dictate terms of civility and debate here.

Birds of a feather still get fleas.
Click to expand...
Are you saying that every response to this guy was honest debate? That no one made any personal attacks? That no one made bastardizations of his moniker? And you call me a liar?
Forgive me if I speak out when I see bullies ganging up on someone just because they are different than them.

That's the moderators job anyway.
 
J R Green said:
Are you saying that every response to this guy was honest debate? That no one made any personal attacks? That no one made bastardizations of his moniker? And you call me a liar?
Forgive me if I speak out when I see bullies ganging up on someone just because they are different than them.

That's the moderators job anyway.
Click to expand...


Why would every response to him need to be an honest debate without attack when the two quotes below were his 6th and 7th posts ever to this site?

Post # 6 from Stillwater

"Duke is getting rid of the statue of Bobby Lee in the Chapel portico....
Let the Beta whining begin..."

Post #7 from Stillwater

"Just talked to a Chatham county commissioner - the Confederate Monument is coming down in Pittsboro.

I showed him the pic from this thread with the guys "protecting" the monument. He laughed like hell and named the folks in the pic - they are county employees on lunch break who sit there all the time. Hence the black dude all the Betas are excited about."


Both of which called members names. You seem to be under the mistaken assumption that calling a group of us names is different than calling an individual a name. It is not.

Once again, you will not dictate tone of debate or parameters of civility.

And as to your attempt to twist what you said, and I quote, "I have yet to see anything from you guys debating the issues but rather you just go on an offensive against the messenger." and then act if I was responding to your now fabricated terms "Are you saying that every response to this guy was honest debate? That no one made any personal attacks? That no one made bastardizations of his moniker? "

Nice try. Read your own words.

Bullies? Just because they are different from them? That's laughable.

Look, Stillwater came in swinging. I'm sure he or she is a big boy or girl and can take care of themselves. I'm sure he/she is well aware off the phrase "don't dish it out if you can't take it".

And yes, I called you a liar.
 
Butthurt in 3...2...1.....
 
I've been in a few bars in my time. Several of those times... You see some cocky kid come in with his " crew" and pretty girlfreind, and his "elevated self worth". Gets a few drinks in him... Starts running his mouth and he gets punched out and taught a lesson.

I don't go to bars anymore. I still see it happen in here though. The guy gets punched in the mouth and his pretty girlfriend sticks up for her idiot bf that got what he deserves.
 
Sneakymedic said:
I've been in a few bars in my time. Several of those times... You see some cocky kid come in with his " crew" and pretty girlfreind, and his "elevated self worth". Gets a few drinks in him... Starts running his mouth and he gets punched out and taught a lesson.

I don't go to bars anymore. I still see it happen in here though. The guy gets punched in the mouth and his pretty girlfriend sticks up for her idiot bf that got what he deserves.
Click to expand...
Lmao
 
Kindly asking all posters to step back and take a deep breath before posting any more off-topic comments.

The topic is
Trump Considers Afghanistan Army Surge


 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom