 Joe Honick |
In case you had not noticed, President Trump has been virtually rehearsing his role to lead something or other against North Korea, even as China calls for some measure of restraint and a nervous world wonders what comes next.
Well, out of an increasingly darkening sky came a screaming headline declaring: “Trump administration poised to extend military role in Afghanistan, putting U.S. back on a war footing with the Taliban!”
More than that, the story indicated that “The new strategy would authorize the Pentagon, not the White House, to set troop numbers in Afghanistan and would allow the military far broader authority to use airstrikes to target Taliban militants.”
That last factor alone thunderously echoes the precise fear of the late President Dwight Eisenhower who knew much about unleashing the power of the military industrial element. Seemingly forgotten are the realities the head of that corrupt government in Afghanistan slandered the men and women of our forces who had risked and lost many lives in defense of his country and suggested we were not wanted or needed.
Also forgotten is old news when defense contractor personnel once outnumbered our own military in that godforsaken country and lived a great deal better than our uniformed people.
So, comes now a disturbingly unsettled picture of a government that seems unable to focus on just what the primary goals are or should be. And while all that happens, suddenly the president, in a throwback to his old TV program, the Apprentice, fires one of the most important people in his administration: The Director of the FBI. Reason given: a couple of questionable guys in the Justice Department said he should go.
Reading from where this piece started to the last paragraph, is it any wonder that so many people around the world and right here in the United States not only wonder what is going on but what will happen next?
We’ll have to spend time in a separate piece on the impact of FBI Director Comey’s sudden dismissal, but it does come as our president is demanding some kind of action regarding North Korea and unable to see that China wants some restraint…and now turns to his generals and the Pentagon to take action in Afghanistan in total opposition to his own assertion that he know stuff like ISIS BETTER than the generals.
As Americans are asked to figure out this newest challenge, are we not entitled to know precisely what we are still doing in Afghanistan? I repeat here questions I raised almost a decade ago that were never answered:
•Precisely what is our mission in Afghanistan?
•How have the Russians suffered from being run out of the area?
•Who is supplying the people we are fighting in Afghanistan and how are they paying for them?
•Precisely what danger are those people to our national security?
•Why do we not demand their neighbors do the fighting?
•Why is no one from either party asking these questions?
Many have suggested we should be more lenient with President Trump. After all he has only been in office a few months. That would be acceptable were it not for the approaches he revealed in his campaign and from which he seems to be unable to detach himself since his inaugural.
The dangerous confusion and concerns that challenge this commentary are precisely what should demand that the President of the United States put his cumbersome so-called Spokesperson Spicer on leave and appear in person for the daily press sessions and respond directly to some damned important questions.
Americans are entitled to that. And the betting around my Republican friends is that the GOP leadership will demand much of the same as a matter of self-defense.
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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. He can be reached at [email protected]
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