Outstanding selection by Trump !!! You know he is right for the job because the people at MSNBC ,the Compost ,Democracy Now ,NY Magazine ,Axios and Politico have their hair on fire .

The reason he is not a General is because he has taken on the Swamp Defense Complex his whole career . The President should've put him in his administration from day one.

He has been serving as Ambassador to Germany . But this position is better suited to him. This appointment makes me believe that Trump will follow through with the total withdrawal from Afghanistan by either the beginning of his second term ,or on his way out the door.

Tom, there will be no second term but if Trump does it, it will be a good thing

Yes ;even if Trump has to leave Jan 20 ; our withdrawal from that endless war will be a major accomplishment.

agreed, it is time is was over, no good purpose is served by prolonging it

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no good purpose is served by prolonging it

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Leave Europe? Yes. Leave Afghanistan? Not so sure about that. You might be right, but it's risky.

Old Joe may have yet another mess to clean up by the time he takes the WH.

it will revert to status quo US ante . The Taliban (mostly Pashtun clients of the Sunni wacky Pakis ) will fight to control about half the country . The other ethnic groups and tribes will hold on to their territory being assisted by other external forces (primarily India which was the primary supporter of the 'Northern Alliance'. )

Afghanistan mostly exists to give strategic space to Pakistan. There is no real national identity . The West has been plagued for more than 2 centuries trying to play the 'Great Game ' there .We tried to tame it and to get the people to embrace democracy . We have to face up to the reality that will not happen.

So the only other reason to remain is to chase AQ which still has a presence there . But would they be tolerated if the US was not there ?Or would they be seen as just another outside force to be defeated ? Either way our electronic surveillance has become sophisticated enough that we can track any potential threat coming from AQ in Afghanistan and whack it accordingly .

The lefties immediately took Trump to task when he dumped Sec Def Esper . But Esper like Bolton was fundamentally opposed to the President's policies and behind the scenes undermined them.

Macgregor is one of the most brilliant military officers of our times. It was his battle plan in 1991 in the battle of '73 Easting' that turned out to be probably the most lopsided victory in American warfare . (full disclosure ,my Cousin Bill was an officer in his 2nd Armor Calvary Regiment ).The elite armor units of Iraq were destroyed with the loss of one American. When the battle was over ,the US had an unopposed route to Baghdad . We did not take it .

But unlike his peers ,who cut their teeth in the 1st Gulf War ;he did not conclude that having endless wars in the region was a good idea. His book 'Breaking the Phalanx: A New Design for Landpower in the 21st Century' proposes a complete restructure of American ground forces . Yes he has stepped on some toes and no doubt bruised some egos . He is not a 'stay in your lane' officer . That makes him perfect for Trump and his unconventional views about the use of American force projection.

Why do you think Russians left Afgan, they soon realised it was an unwinnable situation that merely drank money like a Friday night frat party...
USA, and others, really need to stop poking their collective noses into things that don't concern them.
Unless a sovereign state asks for assistance, or it directly impacts national interest, then leave well enough alone...

MacGregor is just another looney FOX talking head with strange ideas re Germany, Iraq, Muslims, and the usual right-wing baloney that Trump spouts daily (or used to before his pouting silence).

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Originally Posted by Curlyben

USA, and others, really need to stop poking their collective noses into things that don't concern them.

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Ever hear of 911 and the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?

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Originally Posted by Athos

Ever hear of 911 and the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?

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Yes, but that doesn't mean wading in to another country(ies) and staying there for a decade is justified.
They got the ring leaders/principle perpetrators, so job jobbed..

Hasten to add there was no legal process involved with that one, just some dodgy military intelligence.
Can you say WMDs ...

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Originally Posted by Curlyben

there was no legal process involved with that one, just some dodgy military intelligence..

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Dodgy military intelligence? 3,000 dead and 6,000 injured in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania? Dodgy military intelligence?

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Originally Posted by Athos

Dodgy military intelligence? 3,000 dead and 6,000 injured in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania? Dodgy military intelligence?

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While the body count and methods employed were indeed extreme, that's how terrorists work, there's a clue in the collective name.
The dodgy intelligence then led to a massive assault on a sovereign state, with all that entails..

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USA, and others, really need to stop poking their collective noses into things that don't concern them.

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spoken like a true Trumpster .

I have no problem with our reasoning for going into both nations . When Afghanistan became a nation building project impossible to win then it was time to cut losses. Iraq was a different issue . The people embraced democracy :and it filled a national strategic imperative (not as much today as our embrace of domestic energy production has made us energy independent ) . The way we left Iraq was wrong because we handed over a third of the country to Iran and a third to Jihadistan. Leaving Afghanistan will not be the same . AQ/ISIS is unwanted there .

The supporters of the endless Afghanistan engagement are not being honest . What they really want is the rare earth minerals in the Afghan mountains .And those who want us engaged in Syria are really supporters of a specific pipeline plan.

Curly . The Ruskies were there for about a decade . They mostly left because the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. I expect they will be tempted to carve out an area of influence there again with Afghanistan being their most direct route to aiding Iran.

what does it matter what Russia does so long as they do it peacefully and with the consent of the country

Forget all the politics folks, the dufus has his own reasons for doing what he does whether you agree with him or not. He bears a close watch until he's actually gone.

Yes watch closely and learn

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He bears a close watch until he's actually gone.

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another member of the Trump Accountability Project determined to purge Trump and his 72 million supporters .

The dufus was purged at least until 2024. That doesn't mean the dems should celebrate and not see the tricks and traps the dufus and his sycophants will leave all over the place. The dufus may be losing badly in the courts over voter fraud, but if it would be insane to think he won't break stuff on his way out.

Yes Dump will channel his inner BO, BO didn't leave him a clean slate. Yes Dump could pull out of Afghanistan leaving Biden nowhere to deploy troops to. They would have to stay home and Biden won't use them for border protection might be an interesting year, 2021, the Chinese curse in operation

Maybe he is using the Gore standard .......37 day delay and demanding his day in court .
Tricks and traps .....hmmm like leaving behind a 2 year phony investigation then followed by a Stalinist show trial impeachment ?
Like the emperor seeding the upper levels of executive branch with people who self proclaimed themselves 'the resistance ' ?
Instead of a smooth 10 week transition ,Trump was kneecapped by over 3 dozen officials who made scores of unmasking requests . Before he even took office they forced the incoming National Security Advisor to resign and face legal jeopardy.
Among the Obots who made unmasking requests were Quid , Susan Rice , James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper, Samatha Power, former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and former White House chief of staff Denis McDonough. Are those the "tricks and traps " you speak of ?

They leaked false narratives to the press making the transition period chaotic. It scared quality people from applying and accepting positions in the incoming administration .Trump was forced to accept swamp critters and saboteurs into the highest level of his staff just to fill positions .

The attempted coup attempt exposed the Left as the sorest losers in U.S. history . Evita 'conceded ,but in words and actions never really did . She to this day calls Trump illegitimate .She advised Quid to not concede . Madam Mim tore up his SOTU address during a joint session of Congress.

Tricks you say . Would that include the $15,000 damage that the Bubba Adm did on their way out the door ?

The 9-11 Commission concluded that the 37 day delay while the 2000 election was contested was a key factor in the attack. They said the delayed transition “hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees” . Now the Dem are citing that concern ignoring the fact the Trump was denied the seating of many of his key appointments throughout his term . He often had to rely on positioning "acting" officers .

The Dems cite the 9-11 Commission report to now warn of the dangers of a delayed transition; especially in access to needed intelligence briefings . They conveniently forget that the Bubba administrator of the GAO at the time, David J. Barram, independently declined to “ascertain” Bush as the winner until the Supreme Court ultimately ruled and Gore conceded.

So spare me the complaining about Trump . The template he is following is the one the Dems constructed . You should only hope he doesn't take it to the limits he was forced to endure .

More examples of the deep state thinking they run the government over elected officials . “Retiring diplomat Jim Jeffrey, outgoing U.S. envoy in Syria who signed ‘Never Trump’ letter, said his team routinely misled Trump about troop levels in Syria. ‘We were always playing shell games’ Jeffrey told Defense 1. Number of troops ‘a lot more than’ the 200 Trump agreed to"
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2...record/170012/

Poor dufus! He was so wronged by the dems. Dude came in dirty with some dirty dudes fueled by the right wing noise machines exploding heads over decades of slowly losing domination over the great unwashed. Make America Great Again according to Rush, Alex, and the Qdudes.

We don't need no stinking mask, just a 30 foot wall and everything will be okay! I get it Tom, it's your country and you ain't sharing it without a fight. That's been pretty clear for a few hundred years.

We got the dufus and Mitch is NEXT!

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slowly losing domination over the great unwashed.

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a fair assessment of this campaign was that the big corporate money and the support from the elites went to the Dems .The new reality you face is that the Repubs are emerging as the party of the "great unwashed " .Trump was defeated but not Trump's coalition .Just look at the Congressional results ;and how well Republicans did in state elections . The Dems lost ground there The new coalition will be a prominent feature of the political landscape for years to come,

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Originally Posted by tomder55

a fair assessment of this campaign was that the big corporate money and the support from the elites went to the Dems .The new reality you face is that the Repubs are emerging as the party of the "great unwashed " .Trump was defeated but not Trump's coalition .Just look at the Congressional results ;and how well Republicans did in state elections . The Dems lost ground there The new coalition will be a prominent feature of the political landscape for years to come,

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Big corporate money, you mean Soros and Gates. pleased to see someone is looking after the great unwashed, no doubt they have been ignored for years, but just for the record who do you consider the great unwashed? the hillbillies? the red necks? the hippies? the students? the natives? the rust belt?

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a fair assessment of this campaign was that the big corporate money and the support from the elites went to the Dems .The new reality you face is that the Repubs are emerging as the party of the "great unwashed " .Trump was defeated but not Trump's coalition .Just look at the Congressional results ;and how well Republicans did in state elections . The Dems lost ground there The new coalition will be a prominent feature of the political landscape for years to come,

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Very interesting post. It certainly seems to be true that the dems are now the party of the elites.

Is that a bad thing if those elites break the policy of domination and moves to policies of INCLUSION?

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Originally Posted by paraclete

Big corporate money, you mean Soros and Gates. pleased to see someone is looking after the great unwashed, no doubt they have been ignored for years, but just for the record who do you consider the great unwashed? the hillbillies? the red necks? the hippies? the students? the natives? the rust belt?

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All the above and more.

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but just for the record who do you consider the great unwashed? the hillbillies? the red necks? the hippies? the students? the natives? the rust belt?

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All I know is that the Compost today reported that Quid won in areas that are thriving and Trump won in areas where people feel left behind .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...trump-economy/


They allude to the shift I am talking about :

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What occurred in 2020 appears to be part of a larger shift in U.S. politics and economics that has been in motion since the turn of the century. In almost every election since 2000, Democrats increased their share of votes in urban areas that are densely populated and prosperous, while Republicans have increasingly become the dominant party for voters in smaller cities and rural areas...............
The United States is transforming into a knowledge and digital economy, and the political map appears to be shifting with it. Some call it the urban versus rural divide, but it is also a digital versus blue-collar split......... These trends help explain why Biden was able to flip the counties that contain Phoenix, Fort Worth and Jacksonville, Fla., all of which are growing and prosperous urban hubs. And it helps explain why Trump did better than expected in Osceola County and Miami-Dade counties, the two Florida counties with some of the state’s highest unemployment rates.

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The shift is reflected in exit polls .
Trump won the largest share of minority votes than any Republican since the 1960s.Roughly one quarter of non-white voters cast their ballots for Trump. support for Trump rose among African Americans, Asians, and Latinos. In particular, 18 percent of black men voted for Trump in 2020 compared with 13 percent in 2016, and black women increased support for Trump from 4 percent in 2016 to 8 percent in 2020. Trump also roughly doubled his share of gay voters.It appears that support among Latinos buoyed Trump victories in several key counties in the Sun Belt

.https://news.yahoo.com/trump-won-hig...164843048.html

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Originally Posted by tomder55

a fair assessment of this campaign was that the big corporate money and the support from the elites went to the Dems .The new reality you face is that the Repubs are emerging as the party of the "great unwashed " .Trump was defeated but not Trump's coalition .Just look at the Congressional results ;and how well Republicans did in state elections . The Dems lost ground there The new coalition will be a prominent feature of the political landscape for years to come,

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I can agree that dems messaging failed miserably for those aggrieved segments that the dufus attracts through his red meat and divisive hate speech. Just as establishment repubs subverted the Tea Party movement the dufus came along and took it back for the peeps from those repubs, effectively becoming their champion by mainstreaming the far right behind him. That's the dilemma of the repub party as president or not it's still the party of the dufus, and repubs are helpless without him.

I mean if the dufus announces tomorrow his candidacy for 2024, what repub stands a chance against him?

I wouldn't put the post-mortem on trumpism after Trump. He had huuge coat tails for such a losing candidate, There is a deep bench in the Repub ranks .

If I were you I would be more concerned about the direction the Dems are going . You know Quid was the trojan horse/Manchurian candidate , Trojan horse in that he was put there by the establishment lefties like Jim Clyburn who gave his candidacy the blessing it needs . He is the Manchurian candidate for obvious reasons ie quid pro . But the radicals in the Dems smell blood and they have a champion at VP.

I'll let repubs deal with the dufus for their own survival, but have to dismiss the rest of your spin as inaccurate. Clyburn's history is hardly that far left, nor are those he has supported. That doesn't mean there isn't sour grapes amongst the dems as it was disappointing they didn't do a lot better but they may have been unrealistic about the great blue wave they wanted, but those Georgia senate run off races would sure go along way in fixing that.

If Abrams succeeds as the local kingmaker...it's repubs who will be quaking in their boots. A split would surely have the same effect as a loss here.

Dem radicals while a rowdy bunch, don't run the party, unlike the repub radicals under the dufus.

if the Dems are lucky they get a split of the Georgia Senate seats . David Perdue will win his race. Loeffler vs that ultra radical lefty Reverend Raphael Warnock are too close .

I said establishment lefties .