It’s really gonna be epic when DJT starts shitting on Bolton’s face on twitter.
KevinC
4926
Man, that’s gonna result in some serious dingleberries in that mustache.
MrGrumpy
4927
Glad Bolton’s gone. but it looks like he may have angered the US Russian president:
Guap
4929
Good summary. The one thing I would add is that The Taliban, the militant, radical fanatics who carried sharia law into Afghanistan and gave aid and comfort to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden during the planning, execution, and aftermath of the 9-11 attacks, have RAMPED UP their terror attacks on civilian and government targets in Afghanistan, ahead of “peace talks” with us in order to … and I quote from an NPR story yesterday . . . “be in a position of strength while negotiating”.
So we (he) is empowering these backwards scumbags to murder more people because he’s negotiating giving them an actual seat at the table, like they are some kind of legitimate government instead of . . . see above.
He shakes Kim’s hand and salutes him. He says Putin is a swell guy. He invites THE FUCKING TALIBAN to Camp David.
This is statecraft in the Trump era.
Timex
4930
The problem is that Trump’s foreign policy is going to become inexplicably worse without Bolton.
It’s like, you think Bolton was scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of policy leadership, but it turns out that if you look UNDER the barrel…
Oghier
4931
You either defeat your enemies or negotiate a peace. We have proved unable to defeat the Taliban, so negotiating seems a reasonable step. I don’t think the symbolism and timing issues are very important, not if they could have achieved something.
By all accounts, however, the US would have gotten little out of this other than promises to reduce violence. It was not a full cease fire or political solution. And even this paltry step turned into a stumble because of Trump’s narcissism.
So it doesn’t bother me that they were negotiating with the Taliban in the second week of September. That’s not the problem. The problem is that they fucked it up, because Trump’s team is fucking terrible at this.
I’m sure it would bother a lot of people, even if it doesn’t personally bother you. It’s a dumb move, politically speaking. As is the lack of involvement of the Afghan government.
Miramon
4934
It appears that oil prices plummeted on the news of Bolton’s firing/resignation/self-immolation. I suppose because it’s assumed Trump will negotiate with Iran and wind up letting them ship all the oil they want and/or giving them enough so that they stop harassing tankers in the straits.
Oghier
4935
It would not have been a political liability if they had actually succeeded in negotiating a real cease fire in Afghanistan. That would have been a real success.
Of course, they failed at that, and I agree that the symbolism makes it worse. They’re just bad at everything.
Nesrie
4936
So if we had some militant group that happens to hang out and kill people in the USA, you’d be okay to have some foreign government negotiate with them without involving the USA government at all. I mean…
CraigM
4937
So what I hear you saying is that you want Iran negotiating with Stormfront.
MrGrumpy
4938
Wonder if we’ll ever know the full extent of the graft and corruption unleashed by trump’s reign.
Thread:
Oghier
4939
I think I was pretty clear that I endorse the idea of negotiating with the Taliban, but that Trump fucked it up. As he always does. Not including Afghanistan is part of fumbling the process.
Nesrie
4940
I understand that, but that’s not what I am asking. If they were located in the USA, would you be okay with a foreign power negotiating with them, but not involving the USA government in anyway?
Nesrie
4942
See I still see this as part of that stupid ass war on terror crap which was just as dumb as war on drugs. You declare a war on… nothing because one is an act and one is an inanimate object yet somehow you’re still supposed to… win?
Since this isn’t a cut and dry scenario, so it just seems a little odd to approach it like it is, like you can only defeat an enemy or negotiate and make peace with them. I mean is this group even recognized officially as something other than “bad guy.” I thought this was just kind, of you know, terrorist group.
It could have changed and I missed it.
