US President Donald Trump has recently given a speech pledging to expand the United States Military intervention in Afghanistan and get tougher on Pakistan. His original instinct was to “pull out” of Afghanistan, but his senior advisors managed to change his mind. Strangely, he invited India to join the fight, which has led some political pundits to scratch their heads and wonder if Trump even knows what he’s talking about.
Barnett Rubin, who was a senior White House advisor specialising in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan when the Obama administration was in place, has spoken out to criticise Trump’s speech, calling it “an incoherent wish list” that is “unmoored in political reality or principle.” And this is the guy they elected.
Well done, America.
Rubin points out one particular factual error that shows Trump has ‘no understanding’
Rubin, who now works as a senior fellow at New York University’s Centre on International Cooperation, pointed out one mistake that Trump made in his speech that stuck out like a sore thumb and serves as a microcosm of Trump’s knowledge of the situation. He referred to Ashraf Ghani, the leader of Afghanistan, as the Prime Minister – but he’s the President! Rubin takes this as proof that Trump has not closely studied the Afghanistan situation (as he claims he has) and instead shows that he has “no understanding of the basis of the National Unity Government.”
