Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel is increasingly willing to
publicly contradict President Trump on foreign policy stances,
historically not something active US military leadership has done.
Votel went out of his way to oppose President Trump’s Syria policy
during recent testimony to Congress, and is now laying the groundwork
for a similar disagreement with comments to reporters on the ‘dangerous threat’ of ISIS in Afghanistan.
President Trump hasn’t announced a withdrawal from Afghanistan yet, but
peace talks with the Taliban are heading in that direction, with
negotiators hoping to have a deal done in a matter of months. The
Taliban wants US troops out, and has offered to keep al-Qaeda and ISIS
out of Afghanistan.
Votel presented ISIS in Afghanistan as a “very sophisticated and
dangerous threat,” while another, unnamed official was quoted saying
they are “closest to having the capacity to attack the homeland from
Afghanistan.”
In both Syria and Afghanistan, administration policy of ending wars is
not sitting well with Pentagon leadership that has built their ISIS
strategy as permanent warfare. 18 years into Afghanistan, Votel seems
set to publicly resist a pullout.
Fire him – just as Truman did MacArthur.
And if that is too difficult, reassign him to a shit job.
The other brass bozos will get the message.
I don’t think you realize who has been running the show since 911.
Trump needs to fire some generals & admirals, but he is too weak & wishy-washy.
I’d like someone to explain exactly what was meant by saying ISIS is “closest to having the capacity to attack the homeland from Afghanistan”. Are they going to mobilize their air force from there? Send their army over? Navy? What a load of sh*t.
Well anybody with a plane ticket and a bad attitude has the “capability” to attack us. So he is right in a pointless kind of way. The bigger question is why? Maybe if we gave up on operation “whack a hornets nest with a stick” we wouldn’t get stung as much.
“Don’t fight them over there, so we don’t have to fight them over here.”
Yes, he’s right and I’m sure he’d claim to have meant what you said if confronted with facts. But we know what he was implying. Keep the fear factor going by making people believe ISIS could actually storm our shores if we don’t continue the war. Trump should fire his ass but there’d be another clone to take his place. It’s hopeless.
If Trump had a real set of BALLZ he would fire this Big Mouth General,,but as usual he will not!
If he doesn’t have a set of BALLZ how did he father his children. Cankles is the one who didn’t/doesn’t have a set of BALLZ
Rand corporation estimates in 2005 stated…there were more generals and admirals in the Afghan theater than al Qaeda members. Probably substitute “ISIS” for Al Qaeda today.
Eh, dont matter what some bootlicker says, he is following orders. If trump wants to drawdown war in Afghanistan, just order it done, this is all election distraction.
The Generals are getting way too big for their britches, and should be restricted to post orally/verbally and stop pretending they set policy.
Votel said, in Congressional testimony last February (2018), that Lebanese soldiers were becoming the ‘principal security’ force in Afghanistan. There are no Lebanese troops helping US in Afghanistan. For the CENTCOM commander to claim there are shows inexcusable ignorance.
Testimony can be found on C-span at ~36min