I seem to remember conservative posters insisting that there would be wall to wall coverage of the wars if a Republican were in office.
Yet it seems of late neither Iraq or Afghanistan are making too many headlines.
Still, some are still paying attention, and the situation in Afghanistan at least looks like it’s slowly degrading.
I do wonder if in 2020 either party will campaign on just calling it quits, cutting the (ongoing) losses and getting out. Or at least coming to a peace agreement with the Taliban and letting them officially take over half the country.
Seems like getting out is Trumps inclination (per numerous leaks), maybe after the mid-terms I guess.
I wonder if thousands of US soldiers dead, tens of thousands of wounded, a nearly 20 year commitment at a cost of over $1T were even a consideration Bush Whitehouse. The longer forces remain the greater the sunk cost fallacy attracts.
Trump didn’t want to stay in, and I very much doubt Obama did either. Hard to stop that momentum I guess, and politically scary to take the risk.
Still, Trumps political reality is different. Obama would have been lambasted by the right for “cut and running”, but Trump would be celebrated for it.
It is called a quagmire. The momentum is fueled by the belief that the honor of falen US heroes will be tarnished if the US withdraws, that arguably the lives and treasure was wasted in vain. If Trump can bring the troops home then great. That said, I do not want to see Erik Prince taking taxpayer funds to wage a private war afterwards, however.
The mayor of North Ogden Utah was killed by a renegade soldier of Afghanistan forces and he was fighting for what? No one is talking about it. Both sides. I don’t have any idea why we are there are what we are doing. Mums the word.
