War H.R. McMaster rebukes Trump over Taliban talks

H.R. McMaster rebukes Trump over Taliban talks

The president’s former national security adviser says in a “60 Minutes” interview that withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan is an “unwise” policy.

www.politico.com

By MATTHEW CHOI
09/17/2020 07:31 PM EDT

Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster is criticizing President Donald Trump for his administration’s negotiations with the Taliban.
In an interview segment with CBS' “60 Minutes” published on Thursday, McMaster said that moving to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan was an "unwise" policy. The retired Army lieutenant general was discussing his new book, “Battlegrounds,” in which he says Trump “cheapened” the lives of the Americans who died in Afghanistan by making too many concessions to the Taliban, "60 Minutes" reported.

McMaster said during his interview that Trump was “partnering with the Taliban” ahead of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. The Trump administration’s negotiations with the Taliban go “against, in many ways, the Afghan government,” McMaster said.


“What we require in Afghanistan is a sustained commitment to help the Afghan government,” he said on “60 Minutes.”
A spokesperson for the National Security Council did not immediately offer comment on Thursday evening.
The U.S. signed a peace agreement with the Taliban in February, hoping for the Afghan government to soon follow suit. Under the agreement, the U.S. would withdraw all its troops within 14 months of the signing if the Taliban honored its commitments.
Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban started meeting this month in Doha to discuss their own peace agreement. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Doha this month for the opening of the talks.

McMaster served as Trump’s second national security adviser, from February 2017 to April 2018. Since then, he has voiced criticism of some of his former peers. He criticized the Trump administration in November for moving to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria, saying the move would destabilize the region and offer opportunities for Russia to gain greater control in the area.
In May 2019, McMaster said some of his former White House colleagues were a “danger to the Constitution” and were “there to try to manipulate the situation based on their own agenda, not the president’s agenda.”

 

[ShortBusDriver]

Anyone who thinks we should be involved in Afghanistan needs to define the mission.

Afghanistan was a barely functioning country with lawless autonomous regions before the US invaded, and not much has changed.

It's going on 20 years, there's no mission, and no government to turn the country over to.

 

[PC78]

Bring our troops home. That's one of the things I support the president on it's unreal that congress keeps blocking it.

 

[verissimus]

"The retired Army lieutenant general was discussing his new book, “Battlegrounds,” in which he says Trump “cheapened” the lives of the Americans who died in Afghanistan by making too many concessions to the Taliban, "60 Minutes" reported. "

FFS...another person with another book that's coming out is throwing more shade at the President." What are we up to now this year? 5?

 

[murdered meat bag]

"The retired Army lieutenant general was discussing his new book, “Battlegrounds,” in which he says Trump “cheapened” the lives of the Americans who died in Afghanistan by making too many concessions to the Taliban, "60 Minutes" reported. "

FFS...another person with another book that's coming out is throwing more shade at the President." What are we up to now this year? 5?

if he thought those lives were valuable, why did the military waste them on an endless war?

 

[Psychic Espeon]

Anyone who thinks we should be involved in Afghanistan needs to define the mission.

Afghanistan was a barely functioning country with lawless autonomous regions before the US invaded, and not much has changed.

It's going on 20 years, there's no mission, and no government to turn the country over to.

I thought after Bin Laden's death we would leave. But it now appears that the US went to Afghanistan for the Opium Flowers rather than defeating Terrorism for good.

 

[Livecorpse]

You want us to stay in Afghanistan, Mr. McMaster? Fine. You go first.

Seriously, this war in Afghanistan is pointless and worthless. These people don't want to be a westernized liberal democracy. They don't want schools for their kids. They don't want gender equality. The only people this benefits are the politicians and businessmen getting rich off the military industrial complex.

If Trump pulls us out, I will quite happily call him the best President in at least fifty years. Fuck this war, and fuck everyone that wants us to keep fighting.

I'll take my top hats now.

 

[MrJokerRager]

Liberals and Progressives all of a sudden embracing the forever war has been a blackpill. Code Pink and other Bush era peace activists absent at a DNC convention where they had people pushing for more foreign intervention. Just makes me doubt any future human rights activists who talk about peace when there is a 50 percent chance that the bleeding heart is a grifter.

 

[Snekposter]

I've said it elsewhere, but with a shithole like Afghanistan where the average person is fine living in a total shithole, your only two choices once you're there are to leave, or to bomb the place to the bedrock and start over.

 

[RodgerDodger]

"The retired Army lieutenant general was discussing his new book, “Battlegrounds,” in which he says Trump “cheapened” the lives of the Americans who died in Afghanistan by making too many concessions to the Taliban, "60 Minutes" reported. "

FFS...another person with another book that's coming out is throwing more shade at the President." What are we up to now this year? 5?

In all of human history this is the single most depraved psychotic belief that plagues nations who find themselves involved in Military Misadventures. Yeah General your belief is the same exact reasoning that led directly to the a Rape of Nanking and Pearl Harbor. Because “to quit now would dishonor those who gave up their lives”. It’s not Patriotism. Or loyalty to brother soldiers. It’s Sociopathy in place of Leadership. It’s a failure to do a real critical analysis of the goals and costs of an ongoing conflict that seems to serve no purpose but to create more dead and maimed American Soldiers. Yeah General they don’t want to die pointlessly for no reason but their dead brothers honor. And their dead fellows would be appalled that you would demand it of them.

 

[HumanHive]

"The retired Army lieutenant general was discussing his new book, “Battlegrounds,” in which he says Trump “cheapened” the lives of the Americans who died in Afghanistan by making too many concessions to the Taliban, "60 Minutes" reported. "

FFS...another person with another book that's coming out is throwing more shade at the President." What are we up to now this year? 5?

“Buy My Book” zombies are fucking everywhere. They have nothing to say, but certainly something to sell.

 

[Red Hood]

"The retired Army lieutenant general was discussing his new book, “Battlegrounds,” in which he says Trump “cheapened” the lives of the Americans who died in Afghanistan by making too many concessions to the Taliban, "60 Minutes" reported. "

FFS...another person with another book that's coming out is throwing more shade at the President." What are we up to now this year? 5?

This year? There have probably been five this month.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Trump trying to end the wars seems to be really triggering for the professional class.

 

[Maggots on a Train v2]

if he thought those lives were valuable, why did the military waste them on an endless war?

Trump has assumed the position of that dad who tells his teenage son to clean his Hoarders-worthy bedroom for months, but nothing ever gets done until the dad goes in with a snow shovel and some XXL garbage bags.
"Daaad I can't believe you threw away all my best clothes and my game boxes! I was getting ready to clean next weekend! My homework was in there!"

 

[CrippleThreat]

Trump trying to end the wars seems to be really triggering for the professional class.

How much money is the MIC making anyway?

 

[HeyYou]

if he thought those lives were valuable, why did the military waste them on an endless war?

Sunk cost fallacy. His argument is straight up that we can't withdraw the troops because troops already died, and that means we have to keep fighting until Afghanistan is a perfect utopia. It's absurd.

 

[Immortal Technique]

I've said it elsewhere, but with a shithole like Afghanistan where the average person is fine living in a total shithole, your only two choices once you're there are to leave, or to bomb the place to the bedrock and start over.

It's basically this. You cannot win a war against guerrilla fighters that don't follow the rules of engagement that you have too. Kids, women, human shields they'll do it all while the US has to fight with one arm behind it's back to "win the heart and minds" of the people--the same people that don't even want us there.

You have to lay waste to the country or leave like you said.

 

[Kheapathic]

Everyone at the Pentagon level cheapened American lives by going in there with no plan. It was less of a nation-state and more of a geographical region that is held together by the Taliban enforcing Islamic Law. You're not just overthrowing a regime, you're trying to change an entire culture that is incompatible with the one they're trying to plant. Oh, shocker, a large deposit of rare earth / heavy metals have been discovered... and we're going to guard their heroin poppy fields while we're there too... and don't ask why that four-billion dollar gas station isn't real either.

Because big business needs to make money; that's what "American Lives" are worth.

 

[Picnic_Boy]

Liberals and Progressives all of a sudden embracing the forever war has been a blackpill. Code Pink and other Bush era peace activists absent at a DNC convention where they had people pushing for more foreign intervention. Just makes me doubt any future human rights activists who talk about peace when there is a 50 percent chance that the bleeding heart is a grifter.

The Trump administration has made me lose whatever grudging respect I had for guys like Stephen Colbert and John Stewart. They built their careers savaging George Bush for his foreign policy, and now they're lighting candles to Saint McCain. They're complete partisan phonies, like Rachel Maddow without the intellectual honesty.

 

[Bland Crumbs]

What we require in Afghanistan is a sustained commitment to help the Afghan government

Nigga what has the last 20 years been?

It is over. Fuck them. Fuck the whole lot of them. We do not need their shit and their religion can bomb themselves to their current era.

Fuck off McCunt. Someone dump this asshole in the Middle East without a fucking phone.

Fuck you.