Donald Trump has committed the US military to winning the war in Afghanistan - and called on Nato allies, such as Britain, to increase troop numbers "in line with our own".
(remember that when the USA went to war in Iraq it dragged the UK in claiming the dodgy dossier was truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth)
The US president said that a withdrawal of troops would leave a power vacuum that would be filled by terrorists, as has happened in Iraq.
(mainly because if the USA had had a plan for after then this wouldn't have happened)
Several administration officials said that up to 4,000 additional US troops would be deployed to the country to combat a resurgent Taliban and the growing number of Islamic State fighters in the country
(so look out for the return of the body bags)
We will ask our Nato allies and global partners to support our new strategy with additional troop and funding increases in line with out own - we are confident they will,"
(again an American president taking action without consultation of his allies and excepting them to go along for the ride - and because he expects them to toe the line for him)
However, he also vowed to start winning wars - and his military advisers appear to have convinced him that any victory against the Taliban and Isis factions would be impossible without more troops and resources.
(so obviously Trump the pacifist is about to become Trump the warrior - regardless)
President Trump’s scepticism about America’s involvement in Afghanistan was no secret to his staff. But his top national security officials were still taken aback at a meeting in the Situation Room on July 19, when an angry Mr. Trump began ripping apart their latest proposal to send thousands of additional American troops to the country.
“We’re losing,” the president declared, according to a person who was in the room. The plan, he complained, was vague and open-ended, with no definition of victory. “What does success look like?” he asked.
( no secret that he preferred a pull out of troops - not so much because it was right but to score belated points about Obama)
On Monday night, Mr. Trump finally put forward a broader strategy for Afghanistan, one that would require thousands more American troops but place more conditions on the Afghan government. His decision was less a change of heart than a weary acceptance of the case, made during three months of intense White House debate by the military leaders who dominate his war cabinet.
In the end Mr. Trump accepted the logic that a “big military” approach was needed to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a launching pad for terrorism against the United States. Persuaded there were no other options, Trump became the third American president to send young men and women into the longest war in American history.
(and where was this promise when he was on the stump?)
