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 them, five brigades, will be deployed to baghdad. Heres president Lyndon Johnson announcing deployments to vietnam. I have today ordered to vietnam the air Mobile Division which will raise our fighting strength from 75,000 to 125,000 men almost immediately. Addition fall forces will be needed later. And they will be sent as requested. We, of course, lost the vietnam war, which is a piece of our history which seems to be lost to President Trump. In every generation, we have faced down evil and we have always prevailed. We prevailed because we know who we are and what we are fighting for. Heres the future of afghanistan that the president predicted tonight. With our resolve, we will ensure that your service and that your families will bring about the defeat of our enemies and the arrival of peace. Joining us now, evan mcmullen, cofounder of standup republic and also columnist for the washington post, a visiting scholar at the carnegie for international peace. David, at the arrival of peace well, this was the illusion of action. This was the president taking on one of the bravest things that the president can do, which is order troops into battle over oversee a war and essentially use it as a cloak for changing the political discussion in the United States. You know it was a cloak because, as you said, the announcement of numbers and in fact he talked
about a strategy but there was no strategy there. He talked about a commitment but there was no commitment there. He talked about a change but there was no real change in what he was talking about and he talked about principled reason without principles or without a realistic view towards what would be necessary to achieve what he talked about, which is victory. Were 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 aand he brough 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. Evan, on this point of troop numbers, as we just saw in that quick review of president ial announcements, theres always been two reasons for it. One, in a democracy its 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
other end. Well, unfortunately, youre right about that. And so by not naming a number, it may have been the right thing to do if youre just optimizing for impact on the ground in afghanistan visavis the enemy. But i agree, it make it is very difficult then for the American People to what a president is doing in a war than to therefore hold their leaders accountable. I do think that i would try not to be too cynical about this. I understand how the president certainly may have been motivated to change the topic. All of the other topics these days are pretty bad for him. The truth is, the president , whoever it is, did need to come out and make a statement on afghanistan and give some sort of direction as to where were headed even if the details are slim. And i think the speech, while good, was scripted trump. It was very slim on details. I do support the idea that, you know, weve got to move towards
a conditionbased approach, not a timebased approach. I dont think its necessary, therefore, we dont articulate the numbers that were actually sending to afghanistan. Those will become known over time whether its a large number or if its just a few thousand. But but, yeah, i think we should avoid being too cynical. There was a need for the president , whoever it is, to articulate some sort of direction here. David, in the avoidance of being cynical, lets just point out some facts here. The president did say in the end, we will win. So thats a marker for us. He said that the arrival of peace, the arrival of peace in afghanistan will be the definition of us winning and the perplexity of adding india into this speech. If you try to figure out why india is there, it might have something to do with justifying the title of the speech being about afghanistan and south
as that he would get india to help us more with pakistan on Economic Development and assistance. Hes going to get india to help pakistan on Economic Development and assistance. Certainly if there was Something Big in the speech in the Foreign Policy sense, it was a sense that he said im going to bring india into it. Were going to try to get india involved in this stuff. Obviously, as you say and i can see the hint of the smile there on your lips, the notion that somehow were going to get india to help pakistan much with Economic Development or get india more involved with afghanistan without inflaming pakistan is ludicrous. Its made more ludicrous by the fact that theyre used to be an office in the State Department that dealt with this that he shut down unceremoniously. Its made more ludicrous by the fact that when he talked about Economic Development in this speech and political solutions, he hasnt staffed the top people
in the State Department who are supposed to achieve those things and he has talked about cutting back on development and other things that are necessary to achieve those things. On the one hand, hes changing Foreign Policy in the way that it cant and probably shouldnt be changed and hes promising to do things that he himself is the Principle Agitate for against in terms of Cutting Staff or funding. Every previous president has understood that the mission is to prevent them from going to war against each other. Lets listen to what david you said about the president before the campaign. Lets listen to some of that. I know more about isis than the generals do. So a general gets on appointed by obama and says mr. Trump doesnt understand. He knows nothing about defense. I know more about offense and
pushing back against the rise of International Terrorist groups who are still plotting against our country and our allies. Did the president threaten an abrupt withdrawal from afghanistan when he said to afghanistan tonight our commitment is not unlimited, our patience is not unlimited . Well, he said that could happen at any time. In fact, he said its conditionbased and if the conditions turn bad, trump might cut and run and thats traditional for trump. I think its striking and picking up on what evan said, the generals had a different view from trump but he didnt exactly take the advice of the generals. He said we may increase. We may not increase. We may be there for a while. We may not be there for a while. He didnt actually embrace anything in this speech except the notion that we will continue to be in this situation that he said we wouldnt be in any more. The second stage of reporting on this, which im sure will start late tonight or tomorrow, it will be leaks from inside the Trump Administration what exactly the Troop Increase will be and when its going to be. It will all have to come through leaks because it wasnt in the president s speech. Thank you both tonight. Thank you. Coming up, tonights announcement just might help President Trump move past his disastrous week last week. Shawn evans its 6 am. 40 million americans are waking up to a gillette shave. And at our factory in boston, 1,200 workers are starting their day building on over a hundred years of heritage, craftsmanship and innovation. Today were bringing you americas number one shave at lower prices every day. Putting money back in the pockets of millions of americans. As one of those workers, im proud to bring you gillette quality for less, because nobody can beat the men and women of gillette. Gillette the best a man can get. America will work with the Afghan Government as long as we see determination and progress. However, our commitment is not unlimited and our support is not a blank check. The government of afghanistan must carry their share of the military, political and economic burden. The American People expect to see real reforms, Real Progress and real results. Or what . What if they dont see real results . It might be impossible to pick a day in the Trump Presidency when a speech like the one he gave tonight would not be changing the subject from a crisis in the Trump Presidency created by what republican senator bob corker calls Donald Trumps lack of stability and competence. White supremacists in the middle of Boston Common where they were surrounded by 40,000 people protesting against nazi White Supremacists. The president of the United States got a look at those 40,000 people on television, protesting for goodness over evil and he immediately said this about them on twitter. Looks like many antipolice agitators in boston. Police are looking tough and smart. Thank you. The president lied, of course. He didnt see antipolice agitators in boston. The new white house Chief Of Staff general john kelly, who is from boston, obviously seized control of the rest of the president s tweeting. The president then tweeted, i want to applaud the many protesters in boston who are speaking out against bigotry and hate. Our country will soon come together as one. There is no word yet tonight on how many of general john kellys relatives and friends might have
participated in saturdays protest. But this time, at least none of the protesters are being blamed for violence by the president. I do think theres blame, yes. I think theres blame on both sides. You look at both sides, i think theres blame on both sides. And i have no doubt about it and you dont have any doubt about it either. Joining us now, former Chief Of Staff to Vice President joe biden and al gore and betsy woodroof, a politics reporter from the daily beast. Ron, to that question of, was the timing of this designed to change the subject but as i said at the outset, theres always a Subject To Change in the Trump Administration. Yeah. I have no doubt, lawrence, they sped this up to try to change the subject. More days of the president talking about the moral equivalency between protesters and White Supremacists were doing him no favor. But i also think that tonights speech may turn out in the long run to do him more harm than what he did last week about charlottesville. He made three huge mistakes tonight. He said we have an unlimited number of troops in afghanistan. Theyd be there for an unlimited period and with an uncertain objective. Victory, a vwin, an enduring result. They thought changing the topic would help him but i dont think what he laid out tonight is going to wear well over time when the American People see how the president s words arent really matched by results in afghanistan. Betsy, one of the things that the president obviously provoked tonight was another round of leaking in his administration, which will now be leaking about, okay, what is going to happen to the Troop Strength . What are the real numbers . Right. Exactly. That said, of course, theres one less alleged leaker, steve bannon. I thought the biggest takeaway from tonight was a very specific undercurrent of the speech was
steve bannon doesnt work here anymore. Youll notice over the course of that entire address he read from the teleprompter and didnt once use the phrase radical islamic terrorism even though whenever he had a chance to on the campaign trail, he said, unless you use those three magic words, the terrorists will win. He didnt use those three words tonight. Instead, he spoke in a tone that sounded a lot more like mattis and a lot more like mcmaster than it sounded like bannon and steven miller. Of course, he was reading off the teleprompter and whoever writes those words has a lot of sway. That said, though, i could feel bannons absence in this speech. It remains to be seen how that plays out over the coming kmo s months. Thats an important shift that has come through. Betsy, thats an important point about radical islamist. And this approach to afghanistan is something, if it is a Troop Increase, which it probably is,
its something that steve bannon opposed. Yeah. Look, tonight i think this speech was written for him by kelly and mcmaster and mattis. Tomorrow hes going to arizona to talk about the wall and possibly give a pardon to joe arpaio. I dont think were seeing a new president. I think this Pivot Nonsense needs to be put to rest. Donald trump will read what his military advisers put on a teleprompter but tomorrow morning hell still be donald j. Trump. Lets listen to something that he said tonight which is a different tone that what we heard last week. Its about patriotism and bigotry and intolerance. Lets listen to this. When we open our hearts to patriotism, theres is no room
for prejudice, no place for bigotry and no tolerance for hate. We cannot remain a force for peace in the world. We are not at peace with each other. Betsy, unless thats in a teleprompter for him tomorrow in arizona, we may be hearing something very, very different there. Right. Exactly. This is a president who isnt always at peace with his own white house senior staff. This is a president who has been very comfortable having a bell bellicose tone. Previously on twitter, you might have heard him criticizing jeff flake. And showing very little restraint and going after an incumbent republican who voted for his effort. You never know what hes going to say when hes in a crowd of thousands of enthusiastic fans and feels comfortable ignoring the teleprompter and potentially reverting to full trump. Betsy, thank you. Ron, well talk to you in another segment. Coming up, Steve Bannons breitbart says that it is ready to rally votes for Donald Trumps impeachment if the president defects from the steve bannon policy playbook. Thats coming up. You owned your car for four years. You named it brad. You loved brad. And then you totaled him. You two had been through everything together. Two boyfriends, three jobs. Youre like nothing can replace brad. Then Liberty Mutual calls. And you break into your happy dance. If you sign up for better car replacement™, well pay for a car thats a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. If you have moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis or crohns, and your symptoms have left you with the same view, it may be time for a different perspective. If other treatments havent worked well enough, ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohns. Entyvio works by focusing right in the gitract to help control damaging inflammation and is clinically proven to begin helping many patients achieve both Symptom Relief as well as remission. Infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. Entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. While not reported with entyvio, pml, a rare, serious Brain Infection caused by a virus may be possible. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infect