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How Trump fell out of love with his generals, and why the feeling is mutual
By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali and Steve Holland WASHINGTON©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Desert Tortoise
Well they pulled out of the Kurdish controlled areas and handed them over to the gentle mercies of the Turks. I am certain those soldiers obeyed that order through gritted teeth.
Desert Tortoise
It was only a week or so ago a US Army patrol ran into a Russian patrol and there as a collision between vehicles in Syria leading to some injuries.
1glenn
Fewer than four months to go until the criminal proceedings against Trump et al. can begin.
starpunk
I am a veteran and recently at a VA waiting room I saw a recent issue of 'Army Times' and it said clearly and specifically that even though Trump claimed ISIL was beaten and the war was over, the forces there have not pulled out a single inch from Syrian or Iraqi territory. They are openly contradicting what he said, IOW they admit that Trump is a LIAR.
He has no respect for dead soldiers, they are 'suckers' and 'losers' to him. He calls vets with PTSD 'weak'. Let's not forget his prying contempt for the carrier captain who was looking out for his crew when some members got sick with C-19. With this total disrespect he has for the Armed Forces, and his wicked haughty gleefulness for Guardsmen setting up nets at the Rio Grande a few years ago on a Thanksgiving weekend, it's a wonder that any veteran or military personnel would have any respect for such an unmanly commander-in-chief who hates them as much as he does. I don't. I thank God I'm not in the service now because I would tell this uncouth immature criminal traitor where to put it!
Peter Neil
Trump says he knows more than the generals about everything. Hail Caesar.
Desert Tortoise
General Mattis, who was my boss for a while btw, understood what you apparently do not. Without allies dedicated to the same causes as the US, the US is nothing, essentially powerless in a world that is mostly hostile to notions of guaranteed individual rights, capitalism, free trade and democratic governance. There are a lot of nations who are the sworn enemies of all the west stands for and are not shy about uniting against the west. The US has been successful and there hasn't been a WWIII because it had allies who together with the US formed a block so powerful the Soviets and Chinese and their allies were afraid to challenge it directly. They knew they would lose. That method still works. None of the EU nations like the Chinese any more than the US but absent a unified leadership there is no unified response to them nor is there often an alternative for the smaller EU nations for the kinds of investment money the Chinese are willing to throw at them. The US used to be that kind of leader. Now instead the US has a President who disparages US' NATO allies as being as bad as the US enemies while praising the dictator of the nation NATO was exists to confront. That is not how one leads and certainly not how one prevents the Chinese and Russians from dominating the world to our detriment. Instead of picking fights with the EU, Japan and South Korea the US should be leading them in a unified response to Chinese mercantilism and ip theft. China can be contained but not if the west is too busy fighting among each other. That doesn't put US interests first. Btw, when you talk about nations paying their fair share, consider that the bleeding, dying and material destruction will be mostly confined to the lands of Americas allies. If the enemy ends up on US soil a lot of things went very wrong! A big part of having US forces abroad is to fight the enemy on their soil and not on US soil. Unfortunately for the allies that means it is their cities that will be destroyed and their civilians who will suffer mass casualties. In a notional second Korean War first day casualties would be over one million. Half of South Korea's population is within artillery range of North Korea and people live in big apartment blocks with tens of thousands of residents each. It doesn't take too many artillery hits to kill hundreds of thousands in a few minutes at the outset of such a war. In light of that who is counting pennies? Get real. US allies will bleed horribly if there is a war on their land.
Desert Tortoise
Nope. US forces remain in Syria guarding oil fields there. The oil fields were one of Daesh primary sources of revenue. US and other nations forces are there to deny them access to those oil fields as well as to deny the Assad regime access to them.
Serrano
This is from Wikipedia, which as far as I know is not a pro-Trump / a far right news source:
The Russian bounty program is an alleged project of Russian military intelligence, specifically Unit 29155 of the GU, to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing American and other allied service members in Afghanistan.*Alleged. So no actual proof. Oh my.
U.S. intelligence reports from 2019 suggested the existence of the bounty program
Yeah, I seem to remember U.S. intelligence sources telling us that Iraq has WMD. You know, the Iraq that Bush ordered the military to invade with Biden's full support. Oh my.
Today's generals in the US armed forces are highly educated. Of course, they want nothing to do with Trump.
Really! Oh my...
Trump unveils Space Force flag
Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fm9MvnoPTY
1glenn
Today's generals in the US armed forces are highly educated. Of course, they want nothing to do with Trump.
Loki520
Do not... EVER... use any edition of the Military Times as a credible reference for anything. Especially polls.
Distant Fire
"War is a racket." Generals want war. Trump ended the war in Syria. Nuff said. (I am neither pro nor anti Trump, relax)
Serrano
Mattis disagreed with Trump's berating of U.S. allies, his disparagement of NATO
Yeah, Mattis, it's America First, get with it. Our allies are now finally starting to pay their fair share because of non-politically correct Trump.
and his abrupt pullout in Syria, which went against the advice of his military.
Yeah, Mattis, we want our troops out of Syria even if you don't.
Mickelicious
Looney Tunes.
SimondB
Except for when my lord and master, President Putin, puts bounties on them.