We will not talk about numbers of troops. That is new for the american presidency. At no point tonight did the president clarify anything about what would actually change militarily for the United States in afghanistan. If this speech is meant to be interpreted as an increase in Troop Strength in afghanistan, its the first time a president has announced an increase in Troop Strength without actually announcing an increase in Troop Strength. As commander in chief, i have determined that it is in our Vital National interest to send an additional 30,000 u. S. Troops to afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative while building the afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of afghanistan. And here is how president george w. Bush described the Military Surge that he ordered in iraq. So uch committed more than 20,000 additional american troops to iraq. The vast majority of t
bigotry. we are one people. we must be tolerant. we are fighting for each other. he ignored the fact that he wants to kick lgbt troops out of the military. and he ignored the fact that the principle agitate for for divisions in the united states of america right now is the president of the united states. evan, on this point of troop numbers, as we just saw in that quick review of presidential announcements, there s always been two reasons for it. one, in a democracy it s believed that the public has a right to know how many lives are being put at risk and, two, part of this announcements have been intended to scare the enemy. they expect the enemy to be scared by this new commitment, by the new number of troops coming. if the president is afraid to mention the number, it would seem to believe he has a number that can scare anyone on the
we re for the going to achieve any kind of victory in afghanistan. as it happens, trump was probably right on the campaign trail. this is not a place where we are going to succeed and he brought this up tonight and, as you say, he did so in a way that rushed pence in. we have to ask, why did he do it? he did it to change the conversation. he did it to get away from the disaster of last week. he did it in a way that brought that up. because if you listened to the first part of the speech, what did you hear? we want to fight against bigotry. we are one people. we must be tolerant. we are fighting for each other. he ignored the fact that he wants to kick lgbt troops out of the military. and he ignored the fact that the principle agitate for for divisions in the united states of america right now is the president of the united states.