administration could have reversed course but chose course. he slammed biden s over the horizon course which he called a pipe dream. he said without partners on the ground, it s impossible to conduct counter terrorism missions. very modest force, 2,500 was too low. bump that up to 4,000 to 5,000 plus our nato partners, i think we could have managed the security problem indefinitely. the chairman of the foreign affairs committee asked the following question. how was it focused on al-quaida turn into a nation building exercise? one of the worst foreign affairs disasters in american history. the taliban are in charge.
troops from the raid and a pentagon trying to figure out how it happened and how to prevent it from happening again. that s where our focus needs to be, on two things, one taking care of those families of those fallen and those wounded as well as the thousands more that we have we now have in our society as a result of the two wars in iraq and afghanistan and number two, getting to the bottom of this ambush and trying to figure out what s going on. we have as the secretary mattis said yesterday a thousand troops in west africa alone doing counter terrorism missions and this is a combat and command that has been historically underresourced. we need to put all this behind us and have a larger conversation about what we re doing to fight isis and al qaeda affiliates in that part of the world. the white house thought this was going to be put behind everyone, with what john kelly said yesterday, but then the president continuing it with this tweet last night saying that caitlin read i
one of the most sophisticated ever attempted on australian soil. alerting president trump and other world leaders that terrorism is alive and well. mr. trump is getting foreign policy push-back from his own party. john mccain unveiled his on strategy for the u.s. in afghanistan. a plan that includes adding more troops for counter terrorism missions. mccain says he s taking this step because the president isn t coming up with a plan. h.r. mcmaster wants more forces and bannon opposes forces. and then there s russian. after the new sanctions package, vladimir putin kicked out 755 u.s. diplomats and today president trump thanked him. watch. i want to thank him. we re trying to cut down on payroll. as far as i m concerned, i m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people. because now we have a smaller
and 5,000 additional u.s. troops to join the 8,400 u.s. forces already in the country. if it s 5,000, it s a significant increase, but what will these troops actually do? they are set to continue to work on train, advise and assist afghan forces. some could conduct counter terrorism missions, go after the taliban, go after isis, al qaeda remnants. this is pretty typical of what s been going on for the last 15 years, so the real question is would these additional troops be enough pressure to force the taliban to a settlement at the negotiating table? that may be a very tall order. and presumably there would be additional nato troops if the u.s. increases its troop presence. is there a decide as far as you re hearing within the trump administration over this strategy of doubling down right
success. and the fact of the matter is that donald trump is trying to pass the buck on this to generals when he was the one that signed off on it. remember, president obama would not sign off on this mission. president trump did. and what he is perhaps attempting to do on these future counter terrorism missions is put the decision making in the hands of people that are not him. so, if they go wrong, he bears no responsibility. ultimately he owns one title that is more important than any other. that is commander in chief. and when you are making a decision to put soldiers in harms way, you make the call, you over see that mission. and if it doesn t go well as this one in yemen did, if something terrible happens, you have to own the responsibility. here is what the president said in his speech last night, and he quoted general mattis, the defense secretary. quote, ryan was part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more vi