President Donald Trump is pushing to bring troops home from the Middle East, but his own generals are making it very difficult for the commander-in-chief to fulfill his ‘America First’ mandate.
Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of US Central Command, is promoting the propaganda line that ISIS is now a major threat in Afghanistan. The ISIS bogeyman, although almost entirely defeated since Trump cut their CIA funds, is still trotted out by these servants of the military-industrial complex to scare the public.
“They represent a very sophisticated and dangerous threat that we have to stay focused on,” Votel said to reporters on Tuesday.
This new strain of ISIS is even more deadly and murderous than ever before, called ISIS-K, and they are going to attack Americans because of social media and the internet, or something.
“ISIS, as a violent extremist organization has been successful in exploiting social media and looking at people that are on social media and very quickly reaching out to them and using that as a medium to bring them in the organization,” Votel said.
“I think they have a very sophisticated way of recruiting. We certainly have seen that in Iraq and Syria and we see it here,” Votel added.
An anonymous US intelligence official talked to CNN to spread propaganda about why US troops need to stay in Afghanistan even after 17 long years.
“They are closest to having the capacity to attack the homeland from Afghanistan,” the anonymous official who was too frightened to release his name to the public told CNN.
Thankfully, not every General is drinking the kool aid of the War Party. Head of of US Special Operations Command, Gen. Tony Thomas said to the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this month that coalition forces have “made huge progress against ISIS-K which is the primary external threat in Afghanistan.”
Despite the success that has been accomplished, Vogel still wishes for troops to remain in the region indefinitely regardless of whether it is absolutely necessary.
“The fact of the matter is that we have an enduring interest here to make sure that violent extremist groups in this part of the world can’t be used to hurt Americans, American interests and American homeland,” he said.
Although the American people want the troops to come home, it is difficult to accomplish this task considering the institutional factors that stand in the way of President Trump. He doesn’t have to just fight deranged war-crazed Democrats, but also members of his own government to enact his ‘America First’ foreign policy.
