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Trump’s Afghanistan U-turn.

jordanlee1234

President Trump has recently announced that he will not be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. This must be a major blow for his supporters. Many of whom voted Trump because of his promise to pull resources out of foreign countries in order to focus on domestic issues. ‘America First’ I believe he called it.

This failure to deliver on his campaign promises is nothing new. The much-vaunted Muslim travel ban turned out to be a total disaster for President Trump. Instead of ‘draining the swamp’ as he assured. The Donald’s team has mostly been filled with ageing Washington veterans who served under George Bush Jr.

As far as I am aware there has been no progress on the infamous wall between the USA and Mexico.

The legislation that the President managed to pass has mostly been limited to scrapping Barack Obama’s policies.

Donald Trump has not occupied the White House for a full year yet. But his presidency has been buffeted by embarrassing spats between his advisors, high-level resignations, ham-fisted international diplomacy and an ongoing investigation into his links with The Kremlin.

His approval ratings have plummeted since taking office. On the campaign trail, Trump’s advisors were eager to convince America that once he came into office, the bellicose campaigner would disappear and the competent businessman would take over. So far the president has shown himself to be anything but competent.

Over the course of his time in the Oval Office, he has shown himself to be naïve. He keeps getting hamstrung by division within his own party and the machinations of the American political system. A President who is a political outsider may well be a positive thing. But one who doesn’t understand how Washington works will be doomed to failure.

The remaining years in power look bleak for President Trump.

Which leads me to ask this question; Will Donald Trump go down as the worst president in US history?

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5 responses to “Trump’s Afghanistan U-turn.”

  1. Paul Marks Avatar
    Paul Marks

    Leaving aside the unfortunate pro Nazi history of the “America First” movement and later the “America First” party (it made me feel sick when I heard Mr Trump using this term last year – I hope he did not know where it was from, and whoever suggested the term should be dismissed and I believe has now finally been dismissed), let us examine the Afghan policy.

    The policy of President Trump (like that of previous Presidents – going all the way back to Franklin Roosevelt, see his meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia in the 1945). is based up on the assumption that Islam is essentially GOOD – that any problems are caused by a small minority of evil “extremists” and “radicals” who have “twisted” and “misrepresented” this “religion of peace” invented by that good-and-noble man Mohammed (who supposedly respected other faiths and wanted peace).

    If this assumption is correct then the Afghan policy is entirely rational – of course the United States should help the “vast majority” of good Muslims who are fighting against a small minority of evil men who have “twisted” the noble religion of Islam and wish to use Afghanistan to spread their “lies” about what Islam is about, and to train people to launch attacks against the West – such as the attacks on the United States in September 11th 2001 when there was not a single American soldier in Afghanistan and the President (George Walker Bush) was concentrating on “No Child Left Behind” education and the Medicare expansion – and had little interest in the world outside the United States.

    Of course if the assumption that Mohammed and the religion he invented are nice is WRONG – then the Afghan policy is not sensible (because it is based on a false premise) – but Mr Lee has not argued that here (at least not in this article).

    As for the rest of what Mr Lee says – if only President Trump had managed to “repeal Obama legislation” of course he has not, such things as Obamacare remain in place (basically because President Trump has no idea how to manage Congress – being a property developer from New York City with no experience of political work).

    “The worst President in U.S. history” – my dear Sir almost all Presidents get Congress to pass new Welfare State schemes and masses of regulations, and President Trump has NOT (he has just failed to repeal the existing one he wanted to get rid of – and he has actually revoked some of President Obama’s worst Executive Orders, although certainly not all of them).

    That makes Donald Trump (so far) one of the best (not the worst) Presidents in the last 90 years.

    After all the last President to make government smaller was Calvin Coolidge (NOT Ronald Reagan) – so if President Trump did nothing at all (good or bad) he would be the best President since Calvin Coolidge. Just go and play golf for four years and you are automatically the best President in 90 years – as you are not making things worse.

    By the way there was no “Muslim travel ban” – just restrictions on a few Muslim countries (out of many) which the OBAMA Administration identified as having no proper checks on people travelling to the United States.

    Mostly appointed veterans of the Bush Administration – I doubt that is true either (indeed both friend and foe of Donald Trump has noted the outsiders he has brought in – for better or worse). Although the correct policy in relation to many government departments and agencies is to ABOLISH them – not to appoint better managers.

    But then Donald Trump is not Ted Cruz – we can not expect President Donald Trump to even try and get rid of government departments and agencies.

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  2. Paul Marks Avatar
    Paul Marks

    Of course America, and the West in general, is probably doomed – and has been since Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 election and the “Great Society” Welfare State was introduced in the United States.

    Donald Trump is not going to fix that – no one is going to fix that.

    But at least he is not boring. I enjoyed watching his speech last night – even the bits I did NOT agree with (such as the section on NAFTA).

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    1. Jordan Lee Avatar
      Jordan Lee

      It is true that President Trump’s tenure in office has been entertaining. Although I do think that in order for a political leader to make a meaningful reversal of the state they will need to be very knowledgeable of how the ‘deep state’ actually works so that he/she can overcome future barriers. A sort of American anti-Bismarck perhaps?

      As it stands Trumps look like a buffoon. Albeit an amusing one.

      Regarding Islam, I think that the relationship between Islam and modernity is immensely complex. So much ink has been spilt on the subject that I could never really do it justice. But I think that it is much more nuanced than Islam= bad or Islam= good.

      I hope that helps!

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  3. Paul Marks Avatar
    Paul Marks

    Test.

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  4. Paul Marks Avatar
    Paul Marks

    test

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