Trump says he is worried about terrorist attacks if U.S. troops leave Afghanistan

[webfact]

Trump says he is worried about terrorist attacks if U.S. troops leave Afghanistan

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while participating in a border funding legislation signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S. July 1, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan but is concerned that without an American military presence, the country could be used as a base for terrorist attacks on the United States.

 

In an interview on Fox News broadcast on Monday, Trump said the problem with pulling the 9,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the site of America's longest war, is that the country is a "lab for terrorists."

 

"I call it the Harvard of terrorists," Trump said.

 

He recounted conversations he had with U.S. military officials telling them of his desire to remove troops. He said they warned him it would be better to fight terrorists in Afghanistan than at home.

 

"'Sir, I'd rather attack them over there, then attack them in our land,'" Trump said a general had told him. "It's something you always have to think about," Trump said.

 

Even if the United States did remove its troops, Trump said, it would leave a "very strong intelligence" presence in Afghanistan.

 

The interview with Trump was taped over the weekend, prior to Monday's truck bomb attack by Taliban Islamist fighters that killed six people and wounded 105 in Kabul.

 

U.S. special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad held a seventh round of peace talks on Monday with the Taliban in Qatar, aimed at bringing the 18-year-old war to an end.

 

The focus of the peace talks has been a Taliban demand that foreign forces leave and a U.S. demand for a guarantee that Afghanistan will not be used as a base for attacks elsewhere.

 

The United States went to war in Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon, seeking to oust the Taliban militants harbouring Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who led plans to carry out the attacks. About 2,400 U.S. forces have been killed in the conflict.

 

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-07-02

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[user68677878]

If keeping US troops in Afghanistan could guarantee that the US would not be targeted by further terrorist attacks, I would favour making the longest war longer still. But the terrorist threat has evolved since 9/11 and keeping US forces in Afghanistan does not "make America safe". The opposite is true. Occupying countries in the Islamic world exacerbates the threat rather than reduces it.

Trump is also on record as stating that US presence makes Afghanistan governable. Well how is that working out for you- https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-07-01/explosion-heard-in-diplomatic-district-of-kabul-reuters-witnesses

Or perhaps it really is just about securing the supply of opium for the ravenous American market

[tifino]

Individual perspectives are hereby dictated by;

 - as to whether you are a Chicken'before (or after) the'egg sort of person

[zydeco]

17 minutes ago, webfact said:

He recounted conversations he had with U.S. military officials telling them of his desire to remove troops. He said they warned him it would be better to fight terrorists in Afghanistan than at home.

Names please? Or are these more of Trump's imaginary conversations?

[Puchaiyank]

Let's pull all the troops out of Muslim countries as one poster suggests that it is their very presence that is the problem...and we all know from past experience how humane, trustworthy, and tolerant our Muslin brothers are.  We can proceed with confidence that once the troops are withdrawn they would neither plot against or attack the Israeli or American people...

 

Right!   Right?   ????

[bristolboy]

And the good thing is that if Trump says this today, it is absolutely a sure thing that he will not contradict himself tomorrow.

[zydeco]

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

And the good thing is that if Trump says this today, it is absolutely a sure thing that he will not contradict himself tomorrow.

That is a Frederic Remington bronze of TR's.

[simple1]

3 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

Let's pull all the troops out of Muslim countries as one poster suggests that it is their very presence that is the problem...and we all know from past experience how humane, trustworthy, and tolerant our Muslin brothers are.  We can proceed with confidence that once the troops are withdrawn they would neither plot against or attack the Israeli or American people...

 

Right!   Right?   ????

Afghan military and civilians are suffering heavy casualties fighting Islamists. As far as I known the Afghan Taliban have not attacked Western targets outside of their country. Afghan military and Taliban are both fighting Khorasan ISIS in Afghanistan. In relation to terror attacks outside of Afghanistan one would think Khorasan ISIS would be the real threat. 

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/isil-expands-reach-afghanistan-threatening-west-190610062113025.html

Edited July 2, 2019 by simple1

[legend49]

5 hours ago, zydeco said:

Names please? Or are these more of Trump's imaginary conversations?

Have you noted all these big meetings he has with government heads of state all result in great outcomes, beautiful people blah blah. Never any official records released. North Korea a photo op' 6 paces in and 6 paces out and its a GREAT MEETING. Spare me.

[Emdog]

2 hours ago, bristolboy said:

And the good thing is that if Trump says this today, it is absolutely a sure thing that he will not contradict himself tomorrow.

Wasn't it just a few months ago Trump announced he was pulling out US troops, without even warning or consulting Pentagon? Or maybe I'm thinking of some other country. It's difficult to keep track of, as America has it's fingers in so many pies.

[Ozman52]

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

Afghan military and civilians are suffering heavy casualties fighting Islamists. As far as I known the Afghan Taliban have not attacked Western targets outside of their country. Afghan military and Taliban are both fighting Khorasan ISIS in Afghanistan. In relation to terror attacks outside of Afghanistan one would think Khorasan ISIS would be the real threat. 

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/isil-expands-reach-afghanistan-threatening-west-190610062113025.html

So let's draw an artificial distinction between the Pakistan Taliban and the Afghan Taliban. Gee, they're not even in the same country!

[meand]

It is hilarious because he said this right after Tim Ryan got absolutely demolished in the democratic debate for saying the same exact thing. 

 

People are slowly starting to wake up though. I give millennials a lot of credit, I really do. My generation never woke up. 

 

Wars are fought to make money. We are not the "world police", we are the world profiteers. Lines like this got huge applauses at the debate too, so it seems the American people are rising. 

 

No more wars to make rich war profiteers richer, and keep the puppet congressmen who do their bidding for them in power. Profiting by way of wars and wars as a foreign policy strategy simply must be stopped. 

[connda]

Right! <laughs>  

[GreasyFingers]

1 hour ago, Emdog said:

Wasn't it just a few months ago Trump announced he was pulling out US troops, without even warning or consulting Pentagon? Or maybe I'm thinking of some other country. It's difficult to keep track of, as America has it's fingers in so many pies.

Maybe you are getting old and the memory is going. This article shows that mine is as I would not have guessed that it ("war") is 18 years old. ????

[simple1]

36 minutes ago, Ozman52 said:

So let's draw an artificial distinction between the Pakistan Taliban and the Afghan Taliban. Gee, they're not even in the same country!

https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/tehrik-i-taliban-pakistan#highlight_text_8848

[soalbundy]

The only one worried is the industrial military complex, can all that lovely money end so soon ?

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, Ozman52 said:

So let's draw an artificial distinction between the Pakistan Taliban and the Afghan Taliban. Gee, they're not even in the same country!

You're splitting irrelevant hairs.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP; Urdu: تحریک طالبان پاکستان‎, "Taliban Movement of Pakistan"), alternatively referred to as the Taliban, is a radical extremist armed group which is an umbrella organization of various militant groups based on Afghan side of the border. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehrik-i-Taliban_Pakistan (my italics)

There is nothing different in their ideology, religion and goals.

[Ozman52]

4 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

You're splitting irrelevant hairs.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP; Urdu: تحریک طالبان پاکستان‎, "Taliban Movement of Pakistan"), alternatively referred to as the Taliban, is a radical extremist armed group which is an umbrella organization of various militant groups based on Afghan side of the border. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehrik-i-Taliban_Pakistan (my italics)

There is nothing different in their ideology, religion and goals.

Doh! That what the word "artificial" indicates.

[Srikcir]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

President Donald Trump said he wants to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan but is concerned that without an American military presence, the country could be used as a base for terrorist attacks on the United States.

This is another Trump deal gone bad, although thankfully it fell to reality.

February 2019:

• Trump’s special envoy for Afghan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad proposed the withdrawal of U.S. troops in return for a Taliban guarantee that Afghan territory would never be used by terrorists. The United States would be offering up an extraordinary concession—withdrawal—in return for a highly unreliable promise without any conditions being fulfilled. https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/02/07/dont-trust-the-talibans-promises-afghanistan-trump/

[Mansell]

All this nonsense about stopping attacks in America from the Taliban by staying in Afghanistan, is the same kind of rubbish they spouted about Iraq and being attacked by Saddaam Hussein in America. Has nobody learned anything from that stupid war? I was in Afghanistan in January after 9/11 and the military had bombed the shit out of the Taliban. There were barely any boots on the ground, and most of them were on the military bases outside Kandahar and the capital and were not venturing to far from the bases. It was obvious to me at that time we couldn't control a country from a helicopter. Ergo we would end up being there a long time until we got our act together. And guess what.....that is what happened. The Taliban then just crossed the border near Spin Boldak into Quetta in the Baluchistan part of Pakistan, and hung out there until things quieted down and then changed their turbans and came back to cause trouble. The British couldn't beat the Afghanis, nor the Russians, and neither will the Americans. How long do we stay there before somebody with a brain says, "Enough is enough." We are just pouring money into the proverbial hole in the ground.

[Guest Jerry787]

....... and someone, guess the majority of voters , believe him!

[metisdead]

Some off topic posts have been removed. 

[bristolboy]

Trump orders major military withdrawal from Afghanistan as Mattis departs

December 21, 2018

President Trump has directed the Pentagon to withdraw nearly half of the more than 14,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Thursday, a move that many of Trump’s senior advisers and military officials have warned will plunge the country further into chaos.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-agitating-for-major-military-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-advisers-say/2018/12/20/0c35f874-04a3-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.a0ee7943b765

 

White House says Trump won’t pull troops from Afghanistan

Statement contradicts reports last week that the US was to withdraw 7,000 soldiers

Fri, Dec 28, 2018, 22:47

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/white-house-says-trump-won-t-pull-troops-from-afghanistan-1.3743410

[quandow]

You mean to tell me that the MIGHTIEST and MOST EXPENSIVE military in the world can't get the job done after 18 or so years in Afghanistan? Or could they possibly be there for another reason? Since the U.S. military invasion, opium production has increased to the point it's now the largest producer on earth. I just can't buy this coincidence.

[OneMoreFarang]

I think Trump should go personally to Afghanistan and fight those terrorists.

That will likely result in a win/win situation. 

[DaddyWarbucks]

On 7/2/2019 at 7:56 PM, Mansell said:

All this nonsense about stopping attacks in America from the Taliban by staying in Afghanistan, is the same kind of rubbish they spouted about Iraq and being attacked by Saddaam Hussein in America. Has nobody learned anything from that stupid war? I was in Afghanistan in January after 9/11 and the military had bombed the shit out of the Taliban. There were barely any boots on the ground, and most of them were on the military bases outside Kandahar and the capital and were not venturing to far from the bases. It was obvious to me at that time we couldn't control a country from a helicopter. Ergo we would end up being there a long time until we got our act together. And guess what.....that is what happened. The Taliban then just crossed the border near Spin Boldak into Quetta in the Baluchistan part of Pakistan, and hung out there until things quieted down and then changed their turbans and came back to cause trouble. The British couldn't beat the Afghanis, nor the Russians, and neither will the Americans. How long do we stay there before somebody with a brain says, "Enough is enough." We are just pouring money into the proverbial hole in the ground.

You forgot to mention Alexander the Great.

The type of guerilla-style fighting that Alexander faced during his invasion of 330 BC was described later by Plutarch who compared Afghan tribesmen to a hydra-headed monster: as soon as Alexander cut off one head, three more would grow back in its place.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.