Cont: The Trump Presidency Part III

[Bob001]

.....
I suspect there is not a African or Asian country fighting Islamic militants that has not have a US Training presence there.

Joint Chiefs Chairman just said we have over 6,000 troops in 53 (FIFTY-THREE) African countries.

 

[Darat]

Joint Chiefs Chairman just said we have over 6,000 troops in 53 (FIFTY-THREE) African countries.

There's more than one country called Africa?

 

[Bob001]

There's more than one country called Africa?

Is that you, Donald T.?

 

[The Greater Fool]

There's more than one country called Africa?

Is that you, Donald T.?

Bigly not.

It's an understandable question;
It's a question;

 

[sunmaster14]

Does that apply to grammar?

I don't see your point.

 

[Garrison]

Caveats matter, except when they don't.

Complete non-answer, and I think I'm done with your detour.

On the actual topic at hand this is yet another instance of Trump inventing trouble for himself. All he had to do was say he wanted to let the families haves some private time to grieve without intruding and everyone would move on, but no Trump has to try and prove he's better than all the other presidents before and wind up arguing with the family of a dead soldier, which is a complete no win situation. Time and again he creates chaos, then some member of his team get replaced, everyone pontificates on how the replacement will rein Trump in and a week later its back to the old routine.

 

[CapelDodger]

But we also know that his briefings are kept very short and filled with praise and his name. It is possible he hasn't been informed of every casualty.

It's not credible that Trump wasn't briefed on this incident, with three dead and one initially missing, possibly in the hands of an ISIS-affiliated insurgent group. It simply beggars belief.

 

[CapelDodger]

Caveats matter, except when they don't.

Almost every statement should contain a degree of equivocation.

 

[CapelDodger]

Why bring it up? Unless you really do have an uncontrollable need to try and divert the discussion every time Trump does something despicable.

You mistake BobTheCoward's motivation entirely. The subject barely matters.

 

[dudalb]

Lindsay Graham says he didn't know there are "more than 1,000" U.S. troops in Niger.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/10/22/gop_sen_lindsey_graham_i_had_no_idea_the_us_has_1000_troops_in_niger.html

Which is Graham's fault, since congress was notified by the Pentagon.

 

[dudalb]

Joint Chiefs Chairman just said we have over 6,000 troops in 53 (FIFTY-THREE) African countries.

Love to get a breakdown of that....Does troops include everything?
I know we have quite a few US Military Medical personel on permanent duty there, since Central Africa is the big breeding ground for pandemic potential diseases.

 

[Minoosh]

He could have not called 99% of them.

Why?

Well if you want to get unforgivably pedantic, that would be 99/100. It's doubtful that this is the exact ratio.

I wondered too about the sailors who died on the destroyer. I'd be surprised if Trump had called all those widows/parents.

In the Niger incident ... is it possible Trump advisers steered him against mentioning it because nobody was really sure what happened?

 

[CapelDodger]

Well if you want to get unforgivably pedantic ...

You may think it unforgivable but it's not in any objective sense unforgivable.

See what I did there? This stuff ain't hard.

 

[Civet]

Love to get a breakdown of that....Does troops include everything?
I know we have quite a few US Military Medical personel on permanent duty there, since Central Africa is the big breeding ground for pandemic potential diseases.

That's a good point. I hadn't even thought about the medical staff and related stuff. It would be interesting to see more detail about this.

 

[Minoosh]

You may think it unforgivable but it's not in any objective sense unforgivable.

See what I did there? This stuff ain't hard.

I was mis-remembering the Navy accident fatalities. Somehow I hadn't grasped that there were 2 incidents in which a total of 17 sailors died (unless I'm missing someone, always possible). There was the container ship in June and the oil tanker in August. It's not clear in either case what exactly happened.

 

[BobTheCoward]

It's not credible that Trump wasn't briefed on this incident, with three dead and one initially missing, possibly in the hands of an ISIS-affiliated insurgent group. It simply beggars belief.

And he had contacted the ones from that attack (at least one person).

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Love to get a breakdown of that....Does troops include everything?
I know we have quite a few US Military Medical personel on permanent duty there, since Central Africa is the big breeding ground for pandemic potential diseases.

And how many military personnel staff our embassies?

 

[quadraginta]

Well if you want to get unforgivably pedantic, that would be 99/100. It's doubtful that this is the exact ratio.

I wondered too about the sailors who died on the destroyer. I'd be surprised if Trump had called all those widows/parents.

In the Niger incident ... is it possible Trump advisers steered him against mentioning it because nobody was really sure what happened?

Being Republicans they certainly have reason to know what could be done with the slightest hint of a possibility of any inconsistency in a report from the Administration on what happened.

Not that they would expect anyone to make political hay out of a tragedy. That would be unthinkable.

 

[a_unique_person]

Which just shows trump was never a very good con man. He has always been telling these weird lies.

No. A good con man always makes sure he can just disappear when the lies collapse. The lies are always pretty flimsy.

 

[SezMe]

Complete non-answer, and I think I'm done with your detour.

You mistake BobTheCoward's motivation entirely. The subject barely matters.

Yep. Those who engage with BobTheCoward forget the lessons of the Tar-Baby.