President Trump along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and US troops. Politico/AP.
President Trump spent Thanksgiving in Afghanistan to visit the troops after a secret trip. Politico. The President's trip was filled with secrecy and deception as he had told the media that he was planning on spending Thanksgiving home at Mar-a-Lago. He spent three and a half hours with the troops. It was President Trump's 2nd visit to a war zone and first visit to Afghanistan. While there he met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who praised Trump for killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Both Trump and Ghani praised the troops for being away from their families.
In further news, talks with the Taliban are now back on. Fox News. President Trump told the troops that the Taliban want a deal very badly and American troops would stay until there was total victory or a deal. Talks were called off after a terror attack claimed by the Taliban killed 11 people including a US soldier. The President also said that he wanted to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan as well.
My Comment:
Just a quick post mentioning President Trump's visit. It's fairly newsworthy given the extremely high security involved and the fact that President Trump was getting criticized for spending the holiday at home. I'm not going to write a long post since I am in a food coma myself but I quick post is probably appropriate.
The security measures in the Politico article were extreme to say the least. The journalists had their phones collected and even President Trump had to turn his phone in. They had a decoy Air Force one and nobody knew that they were heading to Afghanistan until shortly before they arrived.
It should be a morale boost for those troops in Afghanistan. Trump's approval among the military is higher than among the general public and it probably is nice for them to see their commander and chief. Some might have been annoyed having to wait around for the event, but still, they are getting free turkey so they should be fine.
The real big news though is that it sounds like the talks between the Taliban and America are back on. The Taliban screwed up badly by launching a terror attack as they were very close to being invited to the United States for official talks and possibly a peace deal.
I do have to say that the tradition of Presidents visiting combat zones is one that should end. Not because that Presidents don't have that responsibility, but because we should be finishing up our wars. I sincerely hope that we do manage to make a deal with the Taliban and finally bring the troops home.
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