US troops in Afghanistan: Allies and Republicans alarmed at withdrawal plan

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Motherwit

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Senior Republicans and US allies have voiced alarm at the announcement that a large number of American troops will be removed from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The US is to withdraw 2,500 troops from both countries by mid-January, the US Department of Defense confirmed.

President Donald Trump has long called for troops to come home and has criticised US interventions abroad.

The head of Nato warned of a “very high price”. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the plan “a mistake”.

Mr McConnell - usually a staunch defender of Mr Trump - also warned the president against making “any earth-shaking changes in regards to defence and foreign policy” before leaving the White House.

… Shortly after the announcement, several rockets were fired into the Green Zone in Baghdad and landed near the US embassy. It is the first such attack since Iraqi militias linked to Iran agreed to stop targeting the embassy compound last month. The Iraqi military said an Iraqi child was killed and five civilians were wounded.

 
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Knew this was going to happen. Look at the drumbeat of naysayers coming out of the woodwork. Whinging and whining about getting out. They WANT this war to continue. They WANT the continuation of the perpetual war. They WANT their playground back and they do not give a fig who they have to run over to keep that war going. Does anyone here get it? You Biden voters voted for this!

The neocons have no idea of the hubris they’re in. Neither do Biden and Harris. Neither do you Biden voters. Previous empires have tried and failed to control this region from the Greeks, the Persians, the Arabs and the Turks on to the Mongols, Indians, British, Russians and now America. Who the heck fails to read and understand history? :roll_eyes:
 
Since the American people do not have the stomach to actually conquer and spend several generations pacifying a region like this, the best thing to do is just pull out. We have no benefit staying there sending our children, many of whom weren’t even born at the time of our original invasion, to die there.

We lost 3k people on 9/11. And in response we’ve spent 7k American lives, 10s of thousands of civilians, over one trillion dollars, and we have nothing to show for it.
 
RhodesianSon said:
Since the American people do not have the stomach to actually conquer and spend several generations pacifying a region like this, the best thing to do is just pull out. We have no benefit staying there sending our children, many of whom weren’t even born at the time of our original invasion, to die there.

We lost 3k people on 9/11. And in response we’ve spent 7k American lives, 10s of thousands of civilians, over one trillion dollars, and we have nothing to show for it.
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Now we’re going to be treated to the spectacle of Biden voters staring at the dead animal at the dinner table as this conversation gets real awkward for them. In the blindness of Orange Man Bad, they supported some serious fertilizer. They’re no better than the Bush man they hated so much back in the day.
 
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The anti war left vanished right around the same time intellectual conservatism did.
 
Not only, the rest of the world whines about how the US interferes in foreign affairs.

The troops should be pulled out completely.
 
The anti war left vanished right around the same time intellectual conservatism did.
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They definitely still exist, they just aren’t represented by the Democratic Party.
 
True enough. But I remember the media used to pretty blatantly anti war in the mid to late 2000s. The mainstream left is pretty pro intervention now.
 
2,500 out of Afghanistan, 2,500 will remain. It sounds like only halving the number.
 
RhodesianSon said:
The anti war left vanished right around the same time intellectual conservatism did.
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I’m a pacifist, and many consider me a member of the left.

I think my views are more nuanced than the American left-right political dichotomy wishes to allow (I am absolutely pro-life without exception - hence my pacifism - for example), and there are others like me out there.

Not too many, because sticking to the talking points of the two parties is pretty much what passes for “intellectual” debate in the country. That is a tragedy.
 
It’s happened before, in a short span, 2 months say, maybe 5 US soldiers die. Then what? That burden falls to the president.
 
I have no problem with ending these wars and bringing these kids home. I do have a problem with the process here. This should have, and could have, been done in a measured and rational way any time over the last couple of years. Why impose this arbitrary timeline? Why tell our enemies what we are doing? (Wasn’t this one of Trump’s strongest criticisms of Obama?) After four years, why this sudden need to withdraw troops in an imprudent manner?
 
TMC said:
This should have, and could have, been done in a measured and rational way any time over the last couple of years.
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He kept trying. Constant push back from the pentagon kept it from happening.

They even lied to him about how many troops were in places.

As to why, he’s at the end of his term and he thinks it’s the right thing to do and now he has nothing to lose.

 
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If he’d overruled them everybody would be screaming that he ignored the experts, he listens and he’s weak willed. Every time he attempted a draw down he was undermined and attacked by the media, congress, and members of the military’s brass. All of these people had a vested interest in keeping the wars ongoing and fought to keep it that way.


 
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So the options are that he is incompetent or weak, or maybe both. Not good qualities in a commander in chief.
 
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