President Trump has declared the business of the American military, and that business is killing' Nazis....er, terrorists. And brother, business is gonna be boomin'!
Yup; this is what we have: a reality-TeeVee President who thinks he's now the star of a Quentin Tarantino movie. And have you noticed the language stuck in the early '70's. Trump loves to talk about the "inner city," the socially acceptable term 50 years ago for the "ghetto," by which all white people who used the word meant the hell-hole that blacks had made of their urban neighborhoods. Also a very popular setting for cop shows in the '70's, where white cops dealt with black residents who all needed the police to enforce order in their "inner cities."
Now Trump is going to let slip the dogs of war and take the restraints off our military so they can get the job done. Just like we shoulda done in Vietnam, as any apologist for that war will still tell you (I actually heard a retired military officer make just that argument in an interview a week ago. He was talking about Afghanistan, but the only word missing that would have made it a completely anachronistic statement was "Vietnam."). Because everybody knows if we'd just killed enough of those little brown men in black pajamas, we'd have won that war, too.
So, if we can just depopulate 2/3rds or better of Pakistan and Afghanistan: victory!
Although Trump says victory will look like this:
—“attacking the enemy, obliterating ISIS, crushing al-Qaida, preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan, and stopping mass terrorist attacks against America before they emerge”
As one commentator on NPR said, the Taliban is never going to take over the most densely populated portions of Afghanistan; but rooting it out of the mountainous country of the rural areas? Ask Britain and Russia, and even ancient Rome, how well that works. For the rest: ISIS is on the ropes, causing al-Qaida is rather like crushing mercury, and stopping mass terrorist attacks before they emerge is right in Trump's wheelhouse. After any period with no terrorist attacks on American soil, declare victory! And when an attack occurs, blame Democrats! Victory!
I'm a little curious, too, as to how a few thousand more troops, designated as trainers by the Pentagon, not "trigger pullers" (the Pentagon's phrase, not mine) are going to make a difference now, when at the height of the conflict we had 100,000 troops on the ground. We will have, even after Trump's increase, less than 1/10th that many in country.
Victory! Because it's not about the goal, it's about the process! In fact, it's just about the talking points! If Trump says it, it must be true! And all that matters is that he says it! (although honestly, I think those people were just trolling CNN).
In the meantime, we'll be killin' terrorists. And how do we know they're terrorists? "Anyone who runs is a VC! Anyone who stands still is a well-trained VC!"
Get some!
Trump's idea of war is intimately tied to his concept of plunder, spoils and booty (I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't in his fantasies include at least two senses of that word).
ReplyDeleteHis declarations around Pakistan and getting India involved is literally insane and if he doesn't provoke war over Korea, he could between those two nuclear armed states.
He is too stupid and too insane to be allowed to remain as president. At this point I think Pence would be very bad for the country but Trump is hurtling the world toward total destruction.
Fred Kaplan quoted this bit from Trump's speech:
ReplyDelete“Love for America,” he said, “requires love for all of its people. … There is no room for prejudice, no room for bigotry, no tolerance for hate.” The brave servicemen and women serving abroad “deserve to return to a country that is not at war with itself with at home,” and so, he said, “let us fine the courage to heal our wounds within.”
Wonder how much of that Trump is going to blow up and stomp to bloody bits in Arizona tonight?