Holy shite - are you watching Rachel

[malaise]

Eric Prince was barred from the Camp David meeting today? Bannon was his chief ally and was looking for his private mercenary army in Afghanistan.

Oops McMaster strikes.

[canetoad]

1. Not yet

But as soon as it hits YouTube....

[malaise]

4. LOL

[Glimmer of Hope]

16. Me too..I couldn't find the bootleg live stream on YouTubes tonight.

[Cryptoad]

26. try http://www.livenewson.com/american/msnbc.html

lots better than chasing the Wild Cat Streamers on Utube!

[Glimmer of Hope]

27. Thank you so much!

[Cryptoad]

30. ur welcome,,,,, just passing it on

[FM123]

2. Yes!

I can barely contain myself, lol.

[scheming daemons]

3. This means that a new Afghanistan Surge is all but a certainty

McMaster and Mattis want it.

If you have relatives in the military, give them a hug.... they're going for another tour soon.

[rurallib]

7. Trumpy needs a win - so some folks may have to die

makes him look 'presidential.'

[workinclasszero]

13. I'm sure this surge will do it after 16 years or so...

How many times has Afghanistan been conquered historically?

Never.

Afghanistan is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia and South Asia.The Afghanistan area has been invaded many times in recorded history, but no invader has been able to control all of its regions at the same time, and at some point faced rebellion.

Some of the invaders in the history of Afghanistan include the Maurya Empire of ancient India, Alexander the Great of Macedon, Umar, an Arab Caliphate, Genghis Khan of Mongolia, Timur of Persia and Central Asia, the Mughal Empire of India, various Persian Empires, the British Empire, the Sikh Empire, the Soviet Union, and most recently a coalition force of NATO troops, the majority from the United States, which entered the country in the first-ever invocation of NATO's Article 5 "an attack on one is an attack on all" following the September 11 attacks in the United States.

The country is now entitled the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and has a democratically elected government. A reduced number of NATO troops remain in the country in support of the government under the U.S.–Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Agreement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasions_of_Afghanistan

[maddiemom]

22. "The Graveyard of Empires"

What is our point in still being there?

[workinclasszero]

23. The MIC thrives on the dead, maimed and broken for life

bodies of our military folks.

When's the last time a senators, house member or President's kid fell in battle in a war I wonder?

Of course Trump is a chicken hawk draft dodger himself.


"The Graveyard of Empires" yeah that fits for sure.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Wow

What is odd is that Trump did not say or tweet a word about Bannon today. They can say what they want, but Bannon is going to try to bury the White House.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Bannon has already met with the Mercers about the issue, today, I think. . . . nt

[sarcasmo]

6. Good, that means no 10 Billion for Prince and his private army.

[L. Coyote]

8. Why would Eric Prince be there anyway. He's not in the government even.

This is like non-news. That idea was flushed before today.

Link to tweet

Besides, Afghanistan is just the cover story for Trump's intervention weekend.

[malaise]

10. Apparently they never read

The Prince

[panader0]

15. Machiavelli---from wiki:

The Prince (Italian: Il Principe [il ˈprintʃipe]) is a 16th-century political treatise, by the Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (About Principalities). However, the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. This was done with the permission of the Medici pope Clement VII, but "long before then, in fact since the first appearance of The Prince in manuscript, controversy had swirled about his writings".[2]

Although it was written as if it were a traditional work in the mirrors for princes style, it is generally agreed that it was especially innovative. This is only partly because it was written in the vernacular Italian rather than Latin, a practice which had become increasingly popular since the publication of Dante's Divine Comedy and other works of Renaissance literature.[3][4]

The Prince is sometimes claimed to be one of the first works of modern philosophy, especially modern political philosophy, in which the effective truth is taken to be more important than any abstract ideal. It was also in direct conflict with the dominant Catholic and scholastic doctrines of the time concerning politics and ethics.[5][6]

[malaise]

18. Used that book for years

http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/prince/section6.rhtml
<snip>

Chapters XII–XIV

page 1 of 2
Summary — Chapter XII: Concerning Various Kinds of Troops, and Especially Mercenaries

All princes must build on strong foundations. The two essential components of a strong state are good laws and good armies. Good laws cannot exist without good armies. The presence of a good army, however, indicates the presence of good laws.

There are three types of armies: a prince’s own troops, mercenary troops, and auxiliary troops. Mercenary and auxiliary troops are useless and dangerous. Mercenaries are “disunited, undisciplined, ambitious, and faithless.” Because their only motivation is monetary, they are generally not effective in battle and have low morale. Mercenary commanders are either skilled or unskilled. Unskilled commanders are worthless, but skilled commanders cannot be trusted to suppress their own ambition. It is far more preferable for a prince to command his own army.

Historically, dependence on mercenaries ruined Italy. During the breakup of Italy, which the Church supported in hopes of increasing its own stature, many townships hired mercenaries because they had little experience in military matters. Since the mercenaries were more concerned with increasing their own prestige and status than with taking risks or accomplishing military objectives, the conflicts between these mercenary forces devolved into a series of ineffective, staged, pseudo-battles, ultimately degrading Italy’s political and military might.

[orangecrush]

29. Great post

Timeless truths.

[Bladewire]

9. Drain the swamp!

Just not the swamp Trump initially thought hehe

[malaise]

11. You nailed it

[bdamomma]

12. Prince was barred from going

is that what I heard. Good.

malaise

[dchill]

14. Putin is warming the evidence stew.

Do you smell what the Vlad is cooking?

[kellytore]

19. Eric is the brother of Betsy DeVos

It's funny how these career con artists seem to always get these cozy government jobs, yet they both hate government.

[malaise]

21. We should thank Bush and Cheney for Prince

They sure know how to buy their way into cozy jobs.

[bdjhawk]

25. Another false equivalency by the right

is that the "waste" in government from "welfare queens with Cadillacs" is the same as the billions wasted on bills heavily padded by private defense firms like Prince's. Yet, as you said, they are the biggest whiners about government spending.

[spanone]

20. K&R...

[mucifer]

24. Now can they do something about his sister?

[Kleveland]

28. "She's a man, baby" n/t