What do you think Trump's Afghanistan plan is ?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

All the bad guys have to do is wait for us to leave.

[Warpy]

1. Probably to start conscripting our young adults to go over there

in great force while daisy cutters are dropped from one end of that country to the other and groups with flame throwers attack poppy fields and after 50% or so of the population has been starved/slaughtered and the rest are homeless, build a series of lavish bases with beeyoutiful golf courses for the brass and just take the place over. C'mon, it's prime real estate, on a major travel route and with nice scenery.

[Corgigal]

4. Well

Damn.

[atreides1]

28. Only Congress...

...can reinstate the draft! And I don't believe that the Republicans will even think about it!

Trump cannot reinstate the draft by executive order, Mattis nor the generals in the Pentagon can do it either!

[Warpy]

31. That hasn't stopped him from announcing his Big Ideas before

Then all his true believers follow his lead in blaming everybody else because he wants to do something illegal. You know, like kicking out all 15,000 trans soldiers by fiat.

So brace yourself for some truly harebrained Big Ideas.

[fierywoman]

2. He doesn't know -- he hasn't googled it yet.

[malaise]

3. He said he would never tell the enemy the plan

but then he has lied about everything to date

[Blue_Roses]

18. And to him, I guess giving Russia intel

about another country's security isn't all that big of a deal...

He is such a joke

[Oubaas]

5. Hmmm...

Someone said it was a plan that dealt with the whole region, not just Afghanistan.

So I figure that he'll reinstate the draft with an executive order, then expand the whole thing to include Pakistan, India and Bangladesh along with Afghanistan.

That should draw attention away from other things.

[atreides1]

29. He can't reinstate the draft with an executive order!

Only the US Congress has the power to reinstate the draft!!!

[Xolodno]

37. True...but...

..he can do what GWB did, blackmail Congress into doing so.

Launch a major war under the guise of a national emergency, state he needs more resources and if he doesn't get it, its Congress who is at fault for "our sons and daughters" getting slaughtered. Obama tried to rescind the power to get into a "conflict" without Congressional approval... stupid ass GOP Congress over ruled him and insisted he keep it.

[Oubaas]

39. What If...

What if he invokes his presidential emergency powers first? Could he do it then?

And congress is in the hands of who? That might not be such a big obstacle.

He's probably sitting there right now thinking, "I'll show these protestors. They won't be able to oppose me once they report to Parris Island. I'll be their Commander-In-Chief! This will solve everything!"

But don't mind me. I may just be getting a little paranoid after the past six months or so. Chances are I'm full of crap.

[Thomas Hurt]

6. Whatever it is, it isn't his, but he will take credit and if it fails, it will be generals' plan...

Trump SOP...

[RKP5637]

7. Alex Jones is still working on it, not ready yet for prime! n/t

[kimbutgar]

8. There are over 1 trillion of precious minerals in Afghanistan

https://www.kcet.org/shows/democracy-now/trump-could-prolong-afghan-war-to-exploit-1-trillion-in-untapped-mineral


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-minerals-idUSTRE65D0OH20100614
Article from 2010



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_in_Afghanistan

It's all about the money and getting those minerals. Wasting American lives and putting us further into debt going after it. He going to sell it to his base as helping to pay off the debt of the US. PUtin also wants in on this deal. Afghanistan posts no threat to us so it's about the $. Get this out far and wide.

[pat_k]

9. Wrong-headed

[dalton99a]

10. Some half-baked shit that costs taxpayers billions and other people's children

[Retrograde]

40. And if it puts money in Trump pockets

so much the better.

[CentralMass]

11. It's going to be the "best" war plan ever

[oberliner]

12. I predict a "surge"

Option 2: Privatization.

[Akacia]

13. Whatever it is...

is for certain a stupid plan designed to bring up his approval ratings at the expense of innocent people! Come on investigation/impeachment/25th amendment, whatever it takes we need to get this clown show out of office! I am so sick of it all!

[Sedona]

14. As soon as Putin tells him,

He'll let us know

[Doreen]

15. I remember during his campaigns he said we should

just take other countries resources. Well, it looks like he is starting.

[DinahMoeHum]

16. Betcha it's about replacing our troops with mercenaries. . .

. . .oops, excuse me. . ."private contractors". . .

. . .and putting Erik Prince in charge as a "viceroy". . .

[ananda]

17. In a nutshell

-- I'm leaving it to the generals to escalate the war in any manner
they deem appropriate --

[WePurrsevere]

19. Privatization...

Republicans love privatize. The problem with that is that privatisation is about making money not necessarily doing the job correctly or ethically. Even with Bannon gone I suspect this is the plan and this is just the beginning of what they will try to screw up royally with their 'privatisation' BS.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/thomas-jefferson-street/articles/2017-07-11/team-trump-wants-to-privatize-afghanistan-operations-and-so-much-more

The latest big scoop from The New York Times came this morning, when the paper broke the news that presidential advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner met with private military contractors to offer an alternative to a troop surge in Afghanistan: a mercenary surge that could funnel billions of dollars into the contractors' pockets.

That the administration would have ties to Erik D. Prince, the founder of the notorious Blackwater firm, and Stephen Feinberg, of the military contractor DynCorp, should come as no surprise. That they would use policy to enrich their friends shouldn't either – it's standard operating procedure in this White House. But the bigger story here is that the move to shift Afghanistan operations from the military to contractors shows the full reach of the Trump administration's core philosophy: the privatization of everything.

The divisions between Trump and the conservative movement are well documented. On trade, on foreign policy, on social issues, there are wide and unbridgeable differences. But that framing has disguised the defining conservative philosophy at the heart of Trump's presidency: dismantling and privatizing public services.

|snip|

Military force falls into this category as well. Military contractors and mercenaries are nothing new, of course. Prince's Blackwater was active throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where in 2007 its employees shot 37 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad. Four employees were eventually convicted of the murders.

That Bannon and Kushner would pair with Prince to extend the privatization of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, especially in light of this history, shows how dedicated they are to the principle of privatization, and how little they care about its consequences.

More at link above.

[AngryAmish]

20. Declare victory and leave. There are no good guys there.

It is a dark and Savage land and has been so since history has been recorded. When we are all dead it will be a dark and Savage land.

On edit:. I said Afghanistan is a nation. That is wholly wrong. Afghanistan is as much of a nation as I am Darryl Dawkins.

[July]

21. Let me shout out to DUer GabiHayes,

who posted this prescient gem on 8/8/17:

False flag wag
dog
In the fog
Of war
What's in store?
The hor-
or (the horror!)
For ever
More
(Closest I could get for raven/Poe ref)


Glad I copied it out, GH cleverly nails it.

[LeftInTX]

22. Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran

[countingbluecars]

23. Per some retired general on MSNBC earlier

phase in of more troops- maybe 5,000 to 7,000. I don't know if he had inside info or was just guessing.

[trof]

24. He'll license his name on a hotel to be built soon.

The Kabul Trump Tower.

[struggle4progress]

25. His plan is to announce a plan. A fantastic plan. Very very fantastic. He will use words.

The best words. Remember this: he has the best words! The very very best words.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Whatever the worst possible plan might be.

There aren't a lot of good options, but count on Trump to pick the worst one.

[guillaumeb]

27. Keep talking abut Afghanistan and hope everyone forgets about the Mueller investigation.

[leftstreet]

30. Make Jared and Ivanka the Duke and Duchess of Kabul n/t

[Awsi Dooger]

32. Golf

I like my odds

[tblue37]

33. He will hold rallies so the people of Afghanistan can see how perfect he is and

worship him.

[NotASurfer]

34. Tariffs on Afghan rugs

That's about his level of geopolitics

[Shrike47]

35. Split management of Afghanistan with Russia. Our troops replaced with mercenaries.

Privatization of the Afghani's natural resources.

[Not Ruth]

36. Kill people because we can, that is what military does best

[C_U_L8R]

38. A nothingburger with cheese.