rumitoid

Really nothing else to say, while many in the Intelligence Community do have something to say: the president is damaging negotiations. The Taliban knows that the president wants to be seen as the great deal-maker, which has given away his Trump-card. Then the confusing reversal to cancel talks. He is like a man playing chess with checkers. Or a poker player playing his cards reversed in his hands. (Maybe they are too small to hold them.) In so many other negotiations he has outmaneuvered himself, such as, to name a few:

Caved to Pelosi and agreed to reopen the government without a border wall. But that would have risked undermining perceptions that Trump is a strong negotiator and leader and risked disappointing his base.

Maintained the shutdown. But that was getting more costly by the day for Trump, as his approval ratings got worse and more and more Americans blamed him for the shutdown — and as federal workers went without paychecks and the entire air traffic system was on the verge of chaos.

Struck a deal with Democrats. But because Democrats had all the leverage — the shutdown was hurting Trump a lot more than it was hurting them — it would have had to be a far more generous deal than the one that p**********l adviser/son-in-law Jared Kushner had cooked up, generous enough that it would entail serious policy concessions and perhaps lead to a backlash from his base.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-president-trump-is-like-a-terrible-poker-player/
Declared a national emergency to build a border wall — an option that very much remains on the table. But that would likely be extremely unpopular, would create a precedent that a future Democratic president could exploit, might not be held up by the courts, and would trigger at least some objections from other Republican lawmakers and perhaps also from parts of the military.

JW

What better time to try to save lives by ending a war than on an anniversary of the mayhem that started it? Too bad the Taliban wasn't serious about ending the butchery...

rumitoid

The Taliban has, as our best Intelligence souses say, the art-of-the-deal big mouth piece in the palm of their hand. He gave away all leverage when, before the scheduled talks, he stated he was taking all our troops out. Why should the Taliban negotiate? Freaking big mouth and ignorant i***t.

JW

"our intelligence souses", finally we agree on something. Now, if only you could understand what you hear. He never said we would remove all troops. In fact, he said the exact opposite. He proposed a semi-permanent force of 8000 to 10000 troops.

rumitoid

True, but read how he has screwed it up.

rumitoid

Sorry BS.
Last December Trump threatened not only to immediately withdraw all troops from Afghanistan but also to shut down the U.S. embassy in Kabul, complaining to aides that it is too large and expensive, according to officials. The president's threat to close the U.S. embassy — which has not been previously reported — so alarmed administration and military officials that they quickly offered him a plan to move up the timing of efforts to scale back the size of the embassy staff, officials said.

"He was fed up with hearing that the U.S. was not winning there," one former U.S. defense official said. "It was no secret he wanted out, but deciding to pull out of the embassy, too, was a shock."
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/trump-wants-pull-all-troops-out-afghanistan-2020-e******n-n1038651

JW

You use NBC. An organization that hasn't broadcast a t***h in three years!

BTW, Trump throws out ideas to gauge reactions. What matters comes down the line when he decides on a course of action.

rumitoid

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. What are they feeding you? On freaking believable. Seriously? No t***h in three years? Please expose their lies.

JW

Read my latest posting. I did expose them there.

rumitoid

Let's get a beer and talk.