Democrat lawmakers slams Trump’s Afghan strategy 

by Adedotun Michael

President Donald Trump’s Afghanistan strategy speech has split lawmakers along party lines, as Democrats objected the President’s plan saying it lacked real details while Republicans lauded the move away from arbitrary deadlines for drawing down troops.

The Democrats sentiments

Democrats lawmakers slammed Trump for proposing an open-ended commitment with no exit strategy or ceiling on US troops there.

Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader said in a statement, “Tonight, the President said he knew what he was getting into and had a plan to go forward. Clearly, he did not. The President’s announcement is low on details but raises serious questions.”

In his own view, New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the President’s speech was “terribly lacking” in details, substance and “a vision of what success in Afghanistan looks like.”

Also, Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and Marine Corps veteran, followed suit in his colleagues assertion. He accused Trump of “repeating the mistakes of previous administrations. He said, “Tonight, the American people should have heard a detailed, realistic strategy with achievable objectives and measurable benchmarks, instead, we got only vague promises and wishful thinking.”

The President’s strategy

President Trump during his speech on Monday night said, “the US would be victorious in Afghanistan while laying premium on defeating the terrorists and not nation-building. Mr. Trump insisted his administration would not talk about troop levels in order to keep the enemy in the dark.

The GOP’s supportive stance

Surprisingly, President Trump’s proposal won praise from one of his biggest foreign policy critics in the Republican Party, Sen. John McCain. Sen McCain, who had earlier threatened to give Trump’s cabinet his own Afghanistan strategy if the President would not come up with one, called Trump’s plan “a big step in the right direction.”

McCain said in a statement said, “I believe the President is now moving us well beyond the prior administration’s failed strategy of merely postponing defeat. The Obama administration was frequently criticised by Republicans for putting timelines on troop withdrawal.

The Arizona Republican who is being treated for brain cancer said, “the US now must keep up with sufficient resources in Afghanistan to succeed there”, the President “must conduct himself as a wartime commander” and stressed that the President should speak regularly to the American people about the war.

Also commenting on the speech is House Speaker Paul Ryan who spoke to  CNN in a town hall meeting immediately after the President’s speech that he was “pleased with the decision.”

The speaker said he believed he had heard a new doctrine from Trump of “principled realism.”

Similarly, expressing his satisfaction with the strategy, Sen. Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, said in a statement that he supported the direction that was laid out, though he was skeptical over unanswered questions about the capability of the Afghan government.

Coker concluded, “While there are certainly substantial questions about whether Afghanistan has the capacity over time to provide stable governance to its people, this more focused plan provides the U.S. military with the flexibility it needs to help the Afghan military regain momentum”.

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