Donald Trump's War on Terror

[Syt]

I figure this is going to need its own thread before long.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/world/middleeast/american-commando-killed-in-yemen-in-trumps-first-counterterror-operation.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

U.S. Commando Killed in Yemen in Trump's First Counterterror Operation

WASHINGTON — One American commando was killed and three others were injured in a fierce firefight overnight with Qaeda militants in central Yemen, the military said Sunday morning. The raid was the first counterterrorism operation approved by President Trump since he took office nine days ago.

Commandos from the Navy's SEAL Team 6 carried out the surprise dawn attack in Bayda Province in a ground raid that lasted a little less than an hour. The target was a headquarters for Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen that counterterrorism officials had deemed valuable enough to warrant a ground operation rather than an airstrike, a senior American official said.

Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of the Pentagon's Central Command, said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of our elite service members. The sacrifices are very profound in our fight against terrorists who threaten innocent peoples across the globe."

A military aircraft assisting in the operation crash-landed nearby, leaving two more service members injured, the statement said. That aircraft, identified by a senior American official as an MV-22 Osprey sent to evacuate the troops wounded in the raid, was unable to fly after the landing and was intentionally destroyed by American airstrikes.

An estimated 14 Qaeda fighters were killed in the raid, which led to "the capture of information that will likely provide insight into the planning of future terror plots," the statement said.

The senior American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, denied reports from the region that civilian women and children were among the dead.

A little more than a week ago, suspected United States drone strikes killed three other fighters believed to be Qaeda operatives in Bayda Province in what was the first such killings reported in the country since Mr. Trump assumed the presidency.

[Syt]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/plan-defeat-islamic-state-iraq

Presidential Memorandum Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria



January 28, 2017

NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM – 3

MEMORANDUM FOR THE VICE PRESIDENT

               THE SECRETARY OF STATE

               THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

               THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

               THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

               THE SECRETARY OF ENERGY

               THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

               THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OF STAFF

               THE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE

               THE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR
                  NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS

               THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT

               THE DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

               THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF

SUBJECT: Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is not the only threat from radical Islamic terrorism that the United States faces, but it is among the most vicious and aggressive.  It is also attempting to create its own state, which ISIS claims as a "caliphate."  But there can be no accommodation or negotiation with it.  For those reasons I am directing my Administration to develop a comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS.

ISIS is responsible for the violent murder of American citizens in the Middle East, including the beheadings of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and Peter Abdul-Rahman Kassig, as well as the death of Kayla Mueller.  In addition, ISIS has inspired attacks in the United States, including the December 2015 attack in San Bernardino, California, and the June 2016 attack in Orlando, Florida.  ISIS is complicit in a number of terrorist attacks on our allies in which Americans have been wounded or killed, such as the November 2015 attack in Paris, France, the March 2016 attack in Brussels, Belgium, the July 2016 attack in Nice, France, and the December 2016 attack in Berlin, Germany.

ISIS has engaged in a systematic campaign of persecution and extermination in those territories it enters or controls.  If ISIS is left in power, the threat that it poses will only grow.  We know it has attempted to develop chemical weapons capability.  It continues to radicalize our own citizens, and its attacks against our allies and partners continue to mount.  The United States must take decisive action to defeat ISIS.

Sec. 1.  Policy.  It is the policy of the United States that ISIS be defeated.

Sec. 2.  Policy Coordination.  Policy coordination, guidance, dispute resolution, and periodic in-progress reviews for the functions and programs described and assigned in this memorandum shall be provided through the interagency process established in National Security Presidential Memorandum – 2 of January 28, 2017 (Organization of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council), or any successor.

(i)    Development of a new plan to defeat ISIS (the Plan) shall commence immediately.

(ii)   Within 30 days, a preliminary draft of the Plan to defeat ISIS shall be submitted to the President by the Secretary of Defense.

(iii)  The Plan shall include:

(A)  a comprehensive strategy and plans for the defeat of ISIS;

(B)  recommended changes to any United States rules of engagement and other United States policy restrictions that exceed the requirements of international law regarding the use of force against ISIS;

(C)  public diplomacy, information operations, and cyber strategies to isolate and delegitimize ISIS and its radical Islamist ideology;

(D)  identification of new coalition partners in the fight against ISIS and policies to empower coalition partners to fight ISIS and its affiliates;

(E)  mechanisms to cut off or seize ISIS's financial support, including financial transfers, money laundering, oil revenue, human trafficking, sales of looted art and historical artifacts, and other revenue sources; and

(F)  a detailed strategy to robustly fund the Plan.

     (b)  Participants.  The Secretary of Defense shall develop the Plan in collaboration with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism.

     (c)  Development of the Plan.  Consistent with applicable law, the Participants identified in subsection (b) of this section shall compile all information in the possession of the Federal Government relevant to the defeat of ISIS and its affiliates.  All executive departments and agencies shall, to the extent permitted by law, promptly comply with any request of the Participants to provide information in their possession or control pertaining to ISIS.  The Participants may seek further information relevant to the Plan from any appropriate source.

     (d)  The Secretary of Defense is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register

                              DONALD J. TRUMP

[CountDeMoney]

Maybe if he attended intelligence briefings, he'd already know all this.

[11B4V]

He's smarter than the generals, remember.

[mongers]

So no plans yet for the possible domestic terrorism against the liberal opposition to Trumps policies?

[grumbler]

He's smarter than the generals, remember.

Yeah, that's what he said, but it now seems that, since his plan failed, he is asking the generals to pull his ass out of that sling.

I think that we should be heartened that he recognized the comprehensive failure of his plan after little more than a week in office.

[Eddie Teach]

His plan didn't fail, he just needs someone to fill out the ... step.

[grumbler]

His plan didn't fail, he just needs someone to fill out the ... step.

He said he had a plan, and that he would implement it immediately.  Therefor, he had such a plan, and the plan was implemented.  That he is seeking a new plan tells us that the old plan failed.  The only alternative is that he lied about having a plan, and, really, the odds say that he wouldn't have lied about everything.  He had to say something true, even by accident.  Therefor, it logically flows that, since everything we can check has been a lie, his truth was something we cannot check, like his plan to defeat ISIS.  Ergo, he had a plan, and it failed so massively that even he could recognize its failure.

[CountDeMoney]

He's smarter than the generals, remember.

Yeah, that's what he said, but it now seems that, since his plan failed, he is asking the generals to pull his ass out of that sling.

I think that we should be heartened that he recognized the comprehensive failure of his plan after little more than a week in office.

He campaigned on giving the generals "30 days" to come up with a plan. 
This is all part of his campaign promises To Do Stuff Now.  This is not a new thing.

Trump would turn to generals for Islamic State plan
By Ben Schreckinger
09/06/16 08:24 PM EDT
politico.com

On his first day in office, Donald Trump would order the military to formulate a plan within one month for defeating ISIL, he said on Tuesday.

Previously, Trump has maintained he has a plan to defeat ISIL (also referred to as ISIS) that he did not want to discuss to avoid tipping his hand to America's enemies.

But on Tuesday night, Trump suggested that he is still in need of a plan.

"I am also going to convene my top generals and give them a simple instruction: They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for defeating ISIS," said Trump while outlining actions he would take on his first day as president during a rally in Greenville, North Carolina.
Donald Trump's campaign unveiled the endorsement of 88 retired generals and admirals.

In June, Trump rebuffed Fox News host Greta Van Susteren's attempts to extract the details of his "foolproof" plan, explaining, "If I run, and If I win, I don't want the enemy to know what I'm doing. Unfortunately, I'll probably have to tell at some point, but there is a method of defeating them quickly and effectively and having total victory."

At an April rally in Connecticut, Trump said of his strategy for defeating ISIL, "I have a great plan. It's going to be great. They ask, 'What is it?' Well, I'd rather not say. I'd rather be unpredictable."

"I don't want to be like Barack Obama where he announced a few months ago we are sending 50 soldiers, our finest, to Iraq and Syria," Trump added. "Why do you announce that? Why do you tell the enemy that your sending people over there and they now have a target on their backs?"

Representatives of the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Retired general calls Trump's 30-day ISIS order 'sophomoric'
By Leinz Vales, CNN
Updated 4:03 PM ET, Wed September 7, 2016

(CNN) A retired army general is slamming Donald Trump's remarks that as President he will ask the US military to come up with a plan within one month to defeat ISIS.
"I had to ask myself, what the hell does he think we've been trying to do for the last 14 years in terms of al Qaeda?" Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling told Anderson Cooper on AC360 on Tuesday.

At a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump said that on day one of his presidency, he would convene his top generals and give what he called a "simple instruction" to in 30 days submit to the Oval Office "a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/07/politics/mark-hertling-trump-30-day-isis-plan/

See, he's full of so much shit, we can't even remember the bullshit he said less than 6 months ago during the campaign.

[grumbler]

(snip)

See, he's full of so much shit, we can't even remember the bullshit he said less than 6 months ago during the campaign.

It is clear that he had a "foolproof" plan, that it would "quickly and effectively" yield "total victory."  That's what he would implement when he won the election.   That he also was going to fuck with the generals by making them come up with a redundant and unnecessary plan (and give them thirty days, by the end of which he'd likely already have defeated ISIS) doesn't change the existence of his plan.  He campaigned on the basis of having a full-proof plan.  He claimed that he had it, and never went back on that claim.  The military mind fuck was a separate issue.

[CountDeMoney]

He's going to have a very hard time finding generals who will endorse his use of tactical nuclear weapons against ISIS.

Personally, I think he just wants a reason to fire generals.  That's Absolut Power + 1.

[KRonn]

He's going to have a very hard time finding generals who will endorse his use of tactical nuclear weapons against ISIS.

Personally, I think he just wants a reason to fire generals.  That's Absolut Power + 1.

Lol, didn't Pres Obama fire a bunch of generals? Obama's plan on ISIS wasn't so great either. Now it's a mess for Trump and it was never going to be an easy process anyway. ISIS is in two or three dozen countries. And we so "intelligently" took out Ghadafi so we lost the cooperation we had with his intel services which probably had a good handle on who's who of terrorist activity and groups in northern/central Africa. Ghadafi had changed and was more into cooperation with the west, especially against radical elements. I have to think that his intel services and US and other agencies were working together as they had common goals.

[Berkut]

LOL, right, Moammar Qadafi had his finger on the pulse os Islamic terrorism. Gosh, we should have supported him butchering his own people!

[CountDeMoney]

Lol, didn't Pres Obama fire a bunch of generals? Obama's plan on ISIS wasn't so great either. Now it's a mess for Trump and it was never going to be an easy process anyway. ISIS is in two or three dozen countries. And we so "intelligently" took out Ghadafi so we lost the cooperation we had with his intel services which probably had a good handle on who's who of terrorist activity and groups in northern/central Africa.

Oh, so you're back from Philadelphia?  How was it? 

[grumbler]

Lol, didn't Pres Obama fire a bunch of generals?

Nope.  That was a Carly Fiorina "pants on fire" claim.  Flynn got fired by his boss, an undersecretary of defense.  Only Mattis got "fired" by Obama, over policy differences regarding Iran.  McCrystal had to resign after he indulged in a "grab 'em by the pussy"-style confessional moment with a Rolling Stone reporter.