News has emerged of the nature of Donald Trump’s long meeting with Defence Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, in which Trump discussed with his top Generals, the efficacy of a troop surge in Afghanistan.
According to the Washington Post , one of the decisive factors in swaying Trump towards agreeing to a troop surge was when General McMaster showed the US President a photo of women walking down the streets of Kabul in the 1970s. The women who would at that time have been living in The Republic of Afghanistan, a secular state, were showed wearing what the Washington Post describes as “miniskirts” while their hair and faces were fully exposed.
The following is believed to be the photo McMaster used in his ultimately successful attempt to persuade Trump of the virtues of war. The photo has been circulating on the internet for several years as an example of Afghanistan’s more secular outlook prior to 1992 when an Islamic Republic was declared.
This incident bears a frightening coloration to the time when it was said Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter, cried in front of her father when viewing footage of the almost certainly staged chemical attack in Idlib, Syria in April of 2016. Ivanka’s tears were said to be the motivating factor in persuading Donald Trump to bomb Syria on the 6th of April. The story was corroborated by Ivanka’s brother Eric.
These stories would indicate that Donald Trump’s military decision making process as America’s Commander-in-Chef is widely predicated on emotion’s. it is a dangerous precedent that does not bode well for geo-political stability.
Making matters worse, it is one thing for a man’s daughter to unconsciously tug at her father’s emotional heartstrings, but for a grown man, a seasoned US General and a National Security Advisor to engage in similar behaviour is not only unacceptable but unconscionable. It is a manipulation tactic used against a man who is clearly easily emotionally manipulated.
The role of a National Security Advisor is to offer clear, objective and realistic advice on what moves constitute the best interests of a nation and its people. McMaster clearly sold a President who clearly has an emotional attachment to secularism, a war based on the totally unrealistic goal of changing the character of Afghanistan through bombardment and conflict.
Ironically, in Syria, women do dress in skirts with their hair and faces in full view. The Syrian Arab Republic is a secular, Ba’athist state, one that Donald Trump bombed in a move which implicitly favours jihadist forces who are the opposite of secular and pro-woman.
It seems that Donald Trump is not only a leader guided by emotions but that his emotions don’t always correspond to the facts on the ground.
While legally, the President is ultimately responsible for his final decision, H.R. McMaster apparently conducted himself in a manner that is not fitting of the serious nature of his role.
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