Trump Agreed To New Afghan Plan After Months Of Angry Resistance, Infighting

DAY 20 - In this Feb. 8, 2017, file photo. President Donald Trump sits at his desk after a meeting with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, left, and members of his staff in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (A... DAY 20 - In this Feb. 8, 2017, file photo. President Donald Trump sits at his desk after a meeting with Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, left, and members of his staff in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File) MORE LESS
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President Donald Trump on Monday night announced his administration’s plan for the war in Afghanistan, but only after Trump angrily questioned military leaders over their proposals and moved past staff infighting over what his approach should be.

Presented with plans to send additional troops into Afghanistan in July, Trump furiously grilled national security officials on the proposal, the New York Times reported.

“We’re losing,” Trump said, according to an anonymous person in the room who spoke with the Times. “What does success look like?”

Trump’s initial resistance to increasing troops in Afghanistan, combined with a sharp divide among his top aides, delayed his decision on a strategy for months, the Washington Post reported.

While National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster backed the plan to increase troops, since-ousted chief strategist Steve Bannon vehemently opposed that proposal, per the Post. After Defense Secretary James Mattis sided with McMaster, Breitbart News launched a campaign against the national security adviser, which only irked more administration staff members, per the Post.

During the aides’ battle for Trump’s support, McMaster showed Trump a photograph from 1972 of Afghan women walking through Kabul in miniskirts to prove that it was possible for the country to adopt Western norms, the newspaper reported.

Chief of staff John Kelly eventually forced Trump to make a decision, calling a meeting at Camp David last Friday to finalize an approach in Afghanistan, per the Post.

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  1. Avatar for nbear nbear says:

    So does this mean that women wearing miniskirts on the streets of Kabul is going to be the new measure of our success there?

  2. Avatar for trnc trnc says:

    Of course. It’s DT. They probably added a few “Afghans love you” in the reports.

  3. Trump’s Afghan plan is right next to his healthcare plan which is right next to his immigration plan which is right next to his tax plan which is right next to his budget plan. In other words - he’s got nothing.

    Totally incompetent and totally mentally unfit to serve.

    Remember: when the Germans were sympathetic to the early Nazi and white nationalist movement it led to the rise of Hitler and world’s greatest human tragedy in the Holocaust. Even though the Trump family was expelled from Germany when his grandfather refused to serve in the military and pay his taxes, little lying Donnie should at least have learned the lesson that the Germans have clearly learned. But instead, Trump has emboldened the Nazi moevement in the US as well as the white nationalists and white supremacists and the KKK. These organization should NOT be tolerated or sympathized with or allowed to hide behind the US Constitution as free speech. Hate speech and racism is NOT free speech - PERIOD. They need to be stomped out of existence in the US.

    The whole world is watching…and Trump is screwing up over and over again!

  4. And hopefully halter tops to show progress beyond!

  5. “We’re losing,” Trump said, according to an anonymous person in the room who spoke with the Times. “What does success look like?”

    McMaster showed Trump a photograph from 1972 of Afghan women walking through Kabul in miniskirts

    Asked and answered.

    But seriously, and it pains me greatly to type this, Trump asked exactly the right question. I doubt he has the mental capacity to understand the least thing about any answers he received, but his “instinct”, I guess, was correct.

    Tell us, generals, what does success look like, specifically? ISIS pushed out of cities A, B, and C? A set of written anti-corruption laws, with enforcement mechanisms, for Kabul? HOW DO WE KNOW WE’VE ‘WON’?

    Anywho, Trump distances himself from “the generals’ plan” in 3…2…1…

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