Quoting an anonymous official, the Washington Post reported that "The plan comes at the end of a sweeping policy review built around the president’s desire to reverse worsening security in Afghanistan and 'start winning' again."
Swanson called this statement "Sadly, funny," suggesting that "Nothing instills confidence like anonymity on behalf of the person declaring that you’re going to start winning and then putting it in quotes to sort of admit that they don’t even know what it means."
"Imagine if the US government declared it was going to start winning in any other policy area and everybody put it quotes because it had no meaning, and everyone who declared it was about to happen was anonymous, what sort of confidence would you put in that?"
Swanson pointed out that former President Barack Obama "actually came into office with about 30,000 US troops [in Afghanistan] plus allies, mercenaries, contractors and tripled that, roughly sending another 30,000 twice, only once of which has remained in the public memory," And yet the Taliban controls more territory today than they did eight years ago.
He suggested that the potential surge is "for show," and is more about Washington saving face and catering to the interests of pipeline and weapons makers than any ill-defined notions of victory.
Loud and Clear host Brian Becker added, "In other words, perhaps it’s just a way for each successive administration to say, 'Well we can’t really win but we’re not going to to take responsibility for leaving, because leaving would be perceived as defeat, and I won’t take that responsibility.'"
Swanson disparaged Trump as "a rather imbecilic individual who listens to whoever was the last person they talked to, and doesn’t allow anyone decent to talk to him."
Pointing out how quickly he changed his position on China, NAFTA and other issues, Swanson suggested, "If we could get two minutes with a sane person in the room with Donald Trump on Afghanistan and get him to stick to that policy in the face of all that pressure from the media, and the weapons dealers and Congress, the public would be more than happy to see an end to this madness."
