Remember that Time Trump Said “Get Out of Afghanistan”? Neither Does He

As Matt Welch and Ed Krayewski have noted, President Donald Trump’s plans for a United States military presence in Afghanistan aren’t just secretive and undefined.

They represent a total reversal of earlier statements condemning America’s longest war for its utter lack of effectiveness and unconscionable loss of life and gigantic waste of money. To date, over 2,400 U.S. military have died in the war in Afghanistan and estimates of the cost run between $840 billion and $2 trillion.

“Let’s get with it,” Citizen Trump said in 2012 at a video blog he used to promote The Apprentice. “Get out of Afghanistan. We’ve wasted billions and billions of dollars and, more important, thousands and thousands of lives—not to mention all of these young men and women who come home and they really have problems.”

Whether you agree with Antiwar.com’s Eric Garris (who dug up the video above) that “the War Party got to him” once he became president or believe that he was never really a non-interventionist, the switch in positions is stunning. Here’s a 2013 tweet:

Do not allow our very stupid leaders to sign a deal that keeps us in Afghanistan through 2024-with all costs by U.S.A. MAKE AMERICA GREAT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2013

In October 2015, he declared that occupying Afghanistan was a “terrible mistake” but he took it all back last night, saying

My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts. But all my life, I have heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office. In other words, when you are president of the United States….

P/C PIXABAY