battle are at a loss of what is the actual mission, a difference between an 8-year-old putting a bomb in the ground, and in 18-year-old jumping on a plane and taking the building down in a foreign country. we quit looking at them that way, quit making that discernment on people reacting to us being there as opposed to people who might do us harm when we are not there and we have to draw the line and understand it better. if you re in a village one day a week the taliban is there the other six. a troop surge has been effective and i don t want to know any amount of troops are off the table. that is what it takes to get the job done. heather: thank you for joining us. thank you for your service. rob: confederate monument decapitated in a cemetery, vandals ripped off and stole the head from the soldier statue at
they are considering deploying 4,000 additional troops to that country. joining us now reporter for politico jacquelin fineman. great to have you with us this morning. how is the new strategy, you think, from this trump administration different from the past? i personally remember the headlines of the obama troop surge and the bush troop surge in afghanistan. what are the chances it s actually going to end america s involvement in this longest war? i think chances are slim that we re going to be out of afghanistan any time in the near future, and lots of analysts have pointed out, this is fundamentally not that different a strategy from what president obama did. some of the employee things that trump highlighted that are sort of changes are this new empowering of the military that we ll see. we ve already seen a lot of that from trump giving troops in the field the ability to make decisions, empowering the defense secretary to set the troop numbers.
not get accused of killing an enemy when they re come an ied or explosive device. the last president announced he would do a troop surge and the next day he went to west point and announced when they were withdrawing. this president has said it s a conditions-based withdrawal. he hasn t given a specific number of troops to put in there. that s very important. it sets our adversaries on notice they can t fight us and weight us out. in other words, this is not a time-driven strategy. that s a positive thing. notwithstanding what you said moments ago about pakistan, it puts them on notice. the rules of engagement are now changed not defined in the quarters of washington but in the battlefield. sean: listen, i know your love of the military and have been out on the road with you and in hospitals with you so i
not get accused of killing the enemy. i remember the last president announcing a troop surge and then next day he went to u.s. military academy at west point and announced when they were withdrawing. this president has said, it s a conditions-based withdrawal. he hasn t given a specific number of troops he ll put in there. that s very important. it sets our adversaries on notice they can t simply fight us and wait us out. in other words, it s not a time-driven strategy. that s a very positive thing. not withstanding what was said about pakistan, it puts them on notice. the rules of engagement are now changed. they re defined not in the quarters of power in washington but out on the battlefield. colonel, listen, i know your love of the military and have been out on the road with you and in hospitals with you so i know your commitment is beyond
once weapon g get out i don t e us to remain. take a look at the language we heard tonight. donald trump used three words i think he will come to regret. he said this is my plan for victory. and then he went on to say, essentially suggest that there might be a very modest troop surge and also said, as you were referring to, you know, i m not against withdrawal, essentially he said, these are his words, hayesy withdrawal and announced withdrawal. those are two basically very big signals that suggest what this speech really is not a suggestion that he s turned completely around and is now going to move forwards some kind of military victory. this is a suggestion that this is going to be a withdrawal date unknown. can i make one more point? please. and that is he s asking americans to risk their lives on