Trump cancels secret meeting with Taliban leaders, Afghan president after attack[updated]

[Applewood]

I'm not a member of the "Trump cult", but does this mean you have no answers as to what to do, just criticism?

I thought I already said it.  Pull out .  Bring our troops home.

[Bigun]

Agree with this post.

America no longer has what it takes to win wars.

Very much disagree but we need to get the enemy within out of the damned way in order to do it!

But you still can't negotiate with terrorists.  They don't honor anyone or anything.

(Ducking head, preparing for incoming......)

Absolutely agree with you there!

[Sanguine]

I thought I already said it.  Pull out .  Bring our troops home.

I tend to think like that too, but, and it's a BIG BUT - if we can leave some sort of viable, tolerable situation there, that is much more preferable.  And, honors those who have given so much of themselves over there.  Personally, I don't want to see another Vietnam fiasco which also dishonored our troops.

[TomSea]

If one doesn't want to negotiate with terrorists, write the state department and ask them to put them on groups that are designated terrorists.

Pompeo called them terrorists but until they are designated as such, we can negotiate, I don't know if it happened under Bush, it certainly happened under Obama too.

Yes, Bush apparently did do some negotiating with the Taliban during his administration, whether it was all previous to 9/11, I don't know.

Also, "bring our troops home", okay, and withdraw from Iraq, and ISIS rises to power, Christians killed.  Others killed Simple as that. that's what Obama did. Yes, Iraq was mentioned earlier, good to get these views out.

Very irresponsible views per Iraq from what I see. Flood Europe with refugees, etc. etc.

You go into a country in the first place, you have some moral responsibilities.

Not just do like in Libya, help overthrow a dictator and Adios and Libya is still at war, there's some moral responsibility needed.

[TomSea]

"If you go in to a war then win it", I think we all know this, this is back to square one, we are speaking of a very current and fluid situation.

Trump even said we shouldn't be there just to be policeman.

These generalities are of little help.

Well, those Muslims say kill the Infidel. Real basic stuff,  a lot of these comments with all due respect, have little bearing on the direct situation and again, lends themselves favorably to just launch potshots against our leaders who are trying to do their best... and again, by people who don't seem to show  their faces very often unless Trump can be criticized.

North Korea, human rights violations.  You know, it should be aired too, if someone seems to be opportunistic in criticisms. And you know, what they say about the heat in the kitchen, you put those statements out, don't now go talking about how someone is yelling at somebody or whatever.

[truth_seeker]

Would anybody accept a few hundred lives lost every year in Japan and Germany following WWII?

Of course not and we didn't.

We had bombed Tokyo, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Berlin to smithereens.

We didn't "negotiate" with the defeated governments. We laid down the law: No further hostility whaever, or we will be back killing enemy civilians again.

The US sems to have been unwilling to warn the Afghan government, that we will kill civiians by the thousands, if there is hostility to America or Americans.

I credit Trump for trying to bring this to a satisfactory end, since apparently he and many Americans are unwilling to kill thousands of civilians.

I would warn the Afghan government, that anytime America is threatened or attacked from their lands, we will unleash massive death to the perps.





 

[musiclady]

Very much disagree but we need to get the enemy within out of the damned way in order to do it!

Absolutely agree with you there!

I stand corrected. I believe that the majority of Americans have the will, but pretty much no one in DC does.

It used to be only on the left, but now both sides are filled with weasels.

[TomSea]

Bush did the right thing to send it troops AND?

Of course, after 911 it was the thing to do, but then, Bush went into Nation Building and that's what a lot of people disagree with.

Still, we aren't dealing with 20/20 hindsight. Some people found out pretty quickly that, in their views, that wasn't the right thing to do.

We are at 18 years.

Now, posted earlier, was the clip  where Pompeo said 1000 Taliban killed in the last 10 days, that's pretty impressive if so.  I personally think that is a bit of an exaggeration but obviously, he has better sources.

I think Trump is doing very good in trying to do the best thing possible despite those who might take easy shots at him, "negotiating with terrorists", well, put them on the designated terrorist list and also, speak about the 2 previous presidents.

18 years is a long time.

Oh yeah, Iraq, snicker. We didn't learn any lessons from that? Pompeo certainly has the experience.

We are in Germany still, we are in North Korea still, Japan and so on.

[Right_in_Virginia]

I stand corrected. I believe that the majority of Americans have the will, but pretty much no one in DC does.

It used to be only on the left, but now both sides are filled with weasels.

We'd all have the will if we had the mission @musiclady

[aligncare]

Would anybody accept a few hundred lives lost every year in Japan and Germany following WWII?

Of course not and we didn't.

We had bombed Tokyo, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Berlin to smithereens.

We didn't "negotiate" with the defeated governments. We laid down the law: No further hostility whaever, or we will be back killing enemy civilians again.

The US sems to have been unwilling to warn the Afghan government, that we will kill civiians by the thousands, if there is hostility to America or Americans.

I credit Trump for trying to bring this to a satisfactory end, since apparently he and many Americans are unwilling to kill thousands of civilians.

I would warn the Afghan government, that anytime America is threatened or attacked from their lands, we will unleash massive death to the perps.

 

[TomSea]

Nowadays, the way the world is, human rights and all of that, we don't bomb to kill civilians.

It's almost the opposite, "surgical strikes", we go to all measures not to do that.

[TomSea]

Afghan peace deal: Trump says Taliban negotiations are 'dead'

...

"They thought that they had to kill people to put themselves in a little better negotiating position", he told reporters, calling the attack "a big mistake".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49642655

[berdie]

One thing makes me very happy...Trump nixed this meeting.

Two things make me curious...why did the Taliban show their hand this early?  Just stupid or what? And was some political/military manuveur made to make them blow a cork? (I don't guess that really matters. It would have happened later any way,)

[Sanguine]

One thing makes me very happy...Trump nixed this meeting.

Two things make me curious...why did the Taliban show their hand this early?  Just stupid or what? And was some political/military manuveur made to make them blow a cork? (I don't guess that really matters. It would have happened later any way,)

Good questions.  The whole thing is odd.