Lose Now or Later: America’s Uneasy Choices in Afghanistan
Starting wars is easy, but bringing them to a successful close, ensuring a sustained peace, is not. The war in in Afghanistan is in its 16th year with no end in sight. “The growing presence of the so-called Afghan-Pakistani Daesh franchise – also known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISKP – is a source of worry, using territory as a base to terrorize Afghanistan and conduct terrorist operations inside Pakistan,” explains author Ehsan M. Ahrari. He is with the Strategic Studies Institute with the Army War College. “Another source of apprehension are reports of ‘direct talks’ between Russia and the Taliban.” Russia assumes that the Taliban, unlike the Islamic State, won’t spread beyond Afghanistan’s borders. The United States could send more troops to the country or rely on Pakistan and even China. Foreign policy around Afghanistan is complex, posing repercussions for the region and beyond, an
Image via International Business Times
“And so I think we have to resist the tendency to try to define a new administration’s foreign policy mainly as an opposition to the administration that came before it.”
On December 29th, Thomas Koenig was joined by General H. R. McMaster to discuss his latest book,
Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World. General H. R. McMaster graduated from the United States Military Academy and served as an officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of lieutenant general. He served in the Gulf War, Operation Enduring Freedom, and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He later became a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and served as a National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump from February, 2017 to April, 2018. In this discussion with Mr. Koenig, General McMaster explains his views on what should be a bipartisan reckoning with the dangers of an ascendant China, why he believes that the concept of “strategic empathy” oug
i m really at a point where we re getting very close to having the capital and other things that i want. ok he s getting close to the cabinet that he wants a year and there s been a long list of people have been fired from the administration who have left the administration last week it was his top economic adviser gary cohn if he s getting close to having the cabinet that he wants are we finally going to see some continuity. as you said there has been a long list of people that have been replaced most in the white house one also in his cabinet and i guess if he could he would also get rid of a few people there tony general jeff sessions comes to mind on the trump is still angry that sessions recused himself from the russian investigation and in the white house there s also some speculation that his already second to national
streets in midtown manhattan were blocked off, and the crowds watching signaled how they felt about the president-elect. at laguardia, we drove right up to trump force one. it was the first time we could find a president-elect was going to an army/navy game. mr. trump climbed on board the plane, he says, is a step up from air force one. much of his team was there. chief of staff reince priebus and senior adviser steve bannon, national security adviser general mike flynn, and rudy giuliani, who just took himself out of the running for secretary of state. once we leveled off, i asked the president-elect about his new life. army/navy game. in a sense, is this your unofficial debut as commander in chief? no, it s just something i ve wanted to see. it s beautiful. it s hopefully going to be a good game.