Too little too late

In the eyes of Trump’s anti-war base, who may have turned against him in pacifist states like Minnesota and Wisconsin, troop withdrawals from Germany, the addition of no new wars, and the pre-peace arrangement with the Taliban measured up as petty and hollow victories in the face of the escalating tensions with Iran and China, the loss of major nuclear forces treaties, continued support for the Saudis and Emiratis in the War in Yemen, and the assassination of General Soleimani.

With the appointments of Macgregor as senior advisor to the Sec. of Defense, and William Ruger as the Ambassador to Afghanistan, Trump seems to be working fairly hard to keep his Christmas deadline.

Miller too, for that matter, said as much in an address to the Department he found himself overseeing.

“Indeed, this fight has been long, our sacrifices have been enormous, and many are weary of war – I’m one of them – but this is the critical phase in which we transition our efforts from a leadership to a supporting role. We are not a people of perpetual war – it is the antithesis of everything for which we stand and for which our ancestors fought,” he wrote, adding “all wars must end”.

Macgregor has long been critical of America’s War on Terror, especially Afghanistan, a place which he famously said we should “run” out of, rather than walk. In January, Macgregor explained in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that: “there is one man, only one man who can take decisive action and end this. His name is Donald Trump. He promised to do that a long time ago. He’s disappointed a lot of us because he hasn’t”.

“He could stand up tomorrow and pull us out, but he needs to send everyone out of the Oval Office who keeps telling him, ‘If you do that and something bad happens, it’s going to be blamed on you, Mr. President,’” he said.

The clock is now counting down until Joe Biden takes office, who Binoy Kampmark details for the Center for Research on Globalization as having drawn much of the support from the “Republican defense establishment,” and the firings in the Pentagon would be a bitter bite to end the meal for all parties involved.

The War in Afghanistan is deeply unpopular among voters, and the American people would unlikely be able to tolerate Biden re-invading if indeed Trump succeeded in ending America’s involvement. Those like Macgregor, and Republican voters in 2016, who would have liked to have seen a lot more wars ended, will look back at the Trump term as largely a failure, even if the longest war in American history comes to an end. WaL

PICTURED ABOVE: Now-former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, left, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, as he addresses reporters in Florida.

Continue exploring this topic — Trump Appoints New German Ambassador – Moves Forward with Troop Withdrawals

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