{"id":29132,"date":"2017-08-22T13:56:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T20:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=29132"},"modified":"2017-08-22T13:56:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T20:56:58","slug":"will-we-ever-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/22\/will-we-ever-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Will We Ever Learn?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, while I was in the shower (thank God!), Fuhrer Drumpfenfarten finally announced his Afghanistan policy (sort of).  Fortunately he did not adopt Bannon’s plan to give the war to Erik Prince, former CEO of Blackwater, the GOP SS.  Bannon wanted to privatize the war for $30 billion a year, before cost overruns.  Unfortunately, Trump appears to be letting McMasters call the shots.  To a general, the universal solutions to all problems are troops and more troops.  It has been a no-win war for years.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0822Afghanistan\"<\/p>\n

On Monday night, President Trump did what the last two presidents before him did: he doubled down<\/a> on the war in Afghanistan. Unlike Obama, however, Trump offered no timeline for withdrawal. <\/p>\n

\u201cConditions on the ground, not arbitrary timetables, will guide our strategy from now on,\u201d he told the nation. <\/p>\n

There are currently 9,800 troops serving in Afghanistan. We don\u2019t know how many more Trump is sending. We don\u2019t know how long they\u2019ll be there. And we don\u2019t know what victory even means at this point. <\/p>\n

To get a sense of where we are in Afghanistan, I reached out Laurel Miller, who until very recently was America\u2019s leading diplomat in Afghanistan and Pakistan. She led the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan for roughly four years. After her office was abruptly closed by the State Department in July, she returned to her previous position as an analyst at the RAND Corporation.<\/p>\n

I asked her straightforwardly if there\u2019s a path to victory in Afghanistan and, if not, why US troops are still fighting and dying there. I also asked her how she thinks this conflict will end. While she\u2019s unsure about the latter question, her answer to the first was one was crystal clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMilitary victory is not plausible in any foreseeable time frame<\/strong>,\u201d she told me, \u201cand what we\u2019re doing now isn\u2019t sustainable<\/strong>.\u201d… [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From <Vox<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

Click through to read their complete conversation.<\/font><\/p>\n

Now trump did say that, when out troops open their hearts to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry and no tolerance for hate<\/a>.  In a nutshell, that means that all are welcome to be cannon fodder, but when it comes to getting benefits afterward, and especially when it comes to voting while black or brown, that’s a different thing altogether.<\/font><\/p>\n

Lawrence O’Donnell<\/a> discussed it.<\/font><\/p>\n