McMaster says Trump’s Taliban deal is Munich-like appeasement

[gunsmoke]

McMaster says Trump’s Taliban deal is Munich-like appeasement

McMaster, doing a publicity tour for his new book, sounded off about the Trump administration’s recent approach to Afghanistan during an online event hosted Thursday by the Alexander Hamilton Society, a nonprofit foreign policy network that operates on college campuses across the country. McMaster told the audience that, during his term as national security adviser, the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan had been on track to be sustainable and effective. But in making a deal with the Taliban, he said, Trump has now betrayed the mission and undermined U.S. security.

McMaster said that Trump repeated and then exceeded all of the flaws of the Obama administration’s approach to Afghanistan by seeking to bring the Taliban into the Afghan government and pressuring the Afghan government to go along. Trump, he said, apparently forgot that the Taliban are the enemy, and that they are intertwined with terrorist groups.

“War is a contest of wills. And we have to have the will ourselves to prevail,” McMaster said. “These are some of the most horrible people on earth. These are the enemies of all civilized people.”

Gabriel Scheinmann, executive director of the Alexander Hamilton Society, asked McMaster: “Is this our Munich agreement? Are we pursuing a policy of appeasement with Taliban?"

“Yes, yes, we are,” McMaster replied.

Ouch...

Trump is a really tough guy...when he is in a room by himself bloviating or tweeting...otherwise he is weak and ineffective. He couldn't out negotiate a Golden Retriever.

 

[Louise]

You need to get a grip, or change your forum name. God bless the USA. Go Trump 2020!

 

[GURPS]

Yeah McMasters - swamp creature that barely lasted a yr before kicked him to the curb ... then runs around DC telling news outlets Trump is aiding Putin ...... yeah I'm gonna believe that guys analysis

@Yooper


McMaster, On ‘Warpath,’ Purges Key Trump Allies From White House NSC


An ongoing staffing purge being conducted by White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has thrown the West Wing into chaos, according to more than half a dozen Trump administration insiders who told the Washington Free Beacon that McMaster has been targeting long-time Trump loyalists who were clashing with career government staffers and holdovers from the Obama administration.

The purge is part of a larger drama unfolding inside the administration, between veteran Trump staffers committed to the president's campaign vision of "draining the swamp"‘ in Washington and entrenched bureaucracies seeking to maintain control over policy decision-making, according to these sources, who said that many of these actions against his supporters are being conducted without Trump's knowledge.

The Trump staffers fired by McMaster had repeatedly clashed with career government staffers and holdovers from the Obama administration on issues as diverse as military strategies for Syria and Afghanistan, whether to tear up Obama's landmark Iran deal, the controversial détente with Cuba, the U.S. role in confronting Islamic radicalism, and the Paris Climate Accord, according to these sources.

 

[Yooper]

McMaster's premise is comically wrong. The irony is that he probably knows this. But a book tour needs traction so let's go with this catchy "Munich-like appeasement" phrase to get the permanently #TDS-afflicted anti- and #Never-Trumpers amped up enough to bump sales.

Afghanistan was supposed to be a punitive strike. But success (in sweeping aside the Taliban in the early days) and hubris (we'll show those Russians how it's done) undid all we have successfully done. Instead, Bush used Afghanistan as the test-bed for his administration's "evangelizing democracy" NSS and Obama used it as a means of getting us out of Iraq.

So what's McMaster's alternative to a 19-year-long war that was never supposed to be even two years long? Public opinion (both domestic and international) would never allow us to "win" the Afghanistan War. Frankly, why is it in our national interests to even do so? And when all is said and done, what has the "consensus interagency view" (to use a phrase made famous by the inestimable* Alexander Vindman) done to actually win in Afghanistan?**

The better solution is to do what Trump is doing: withdrawing (like all our allies have pretty much done; oh, btw, was their withdrawals appeasement also?) and return to what operations in/national interest for Afghanistan was meant to be right at the start: punitive actions. Where technology was not advanced enough in 2001-2002 to allow us to maintain an orbiting punitive capability we can now. So why not?

We no longer owe the Afghanistani collective anything. We've given them almost two decades to sort it out and they have chosen not to do so. In a word, adieu.

In the end, on one hand McMaster is trying to sell books and pad his wallet. On the other, however, he's a clown (like all the other FredoCons).**

* Sarcasm, btw.

** Or Iraq? Or Syria? Or with China? Or with our NATO "allies"? And on and on....

*** There is a third alternative; that he feels he is being true to his "Dereliction of Duty" propositions. I don't think this holds up, but it is certainly possible McMaster thinks he's being true to his earlier self so I wanted to at least mention it.

--- End of line (MCP)

 

[GURPS]

In the end, on one hand McMaster is trying to sell books and pad his wallet. On the other, however, he's a clown (like all the other FredoCons).**

I was hoping you were going to finally weigh in on this



Well said and thanks