Gen. John Nicholson Jr. is the 17th commander of the US occupation of Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. It’s not exactly a plum job, as the war is going poorly, and he appears to be falling out of favor quickly with President Trump, after having inherited the position back in March of last year.
Officials are now revealing details of a tense, multi-hour meeting on July 19, during which President Trump complained that the US is losing the war in Afghanistan, and expressed frustration with his advisers, who have been urging an escalation in the protracted war to try to slow the rate of loss.
Trump has been resistant to the escalation calls, skeptical that they’ll do anything to change the tide of the war, but also appears to be increasingly frustrated with Gen. Nicholson in particular, repeatedly suggesting during the meeting that Nicholson should be fired “because he is not winning” the conflict.
That’s about par for the course for commanders in Afghanistan, as more than a few have been relieved of command because the war was going more poorly than the president at the time was satisfied with. Trump’s suggestions of sacking him are a bit more frank than the public comments ahead of the dismissal of past commanders, but Nicholson’s slightly over one year time as commander is roughly the norm.
Whether this is just the latest shuffling of the leadership to give the illusion of forward motion remains to be seen, put some reports have suggested that some in the White House are pushing for an outright withdrawal from Afghanistan instead of continuing to drag out the failed conflict.
If there is one thing I’ve learned from Trump it’s don’t believe it till you see it.
“To give the illusion of forward progress, put (or should it be but) some reports suggest that some in the White House
Hello, 2007 just called. We lost that ‘war’ a long time ago, pal. We aren’t the first to waltz in there and have their butts handed to them on a plate, and we won’t be the last.
Lost long ago Donald.
I served as a medical corpsman in Vietnam which was the mother all bullshit wars. Nothing much has changed in the intervening decades.
What would “winning” look like?
I think Ann Coulter had some ideas
“invade their country, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity”
Well, the US claims to have “won” in Mosul, so imagine an entire nation lying in ruins with tens of thousands of corpses strewn throughout the rubble, and that would be what “winning” looks like in Afghanistan.
But, but victory is “just around the corner”…. Give us more money, a trillion dollar is too little…
If the advice is “do more of the same thing that has not worked for 16 years” then Trump is right, fire the guy. And yes, that is the advice.
Spending lives, killing vast numbers of innocents, and waste of hundreds of billions is too high a price for putting off the inevitable until a more convenient political moment that will never come anyway.
Rome could not defeat the Christians So Rome joined the Christians . The NWO can not defeat the Muslims so the NWO must join the Muslims . That is what Europe and NWO are doing right now . If you don’t like it you can move out .
The only way for Afghanistan to avoid falling back under the Taliban is for its neighbors other than Pakistan to send in troops. Mainly China. A few hundred thousand Chinese peacekeepers would ensure secularism is there to stay.