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Trump wasn't the worst US President. Bush2 was. And he is still a guest at late-night TV shows. Incredible.

• rbanffy 5y ago
  Worth noting Trump ordered the release of their leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, from prison.
  • dragontamer 5y ago
    More importantly: Trump negotiated that release without consulting the Afghan government last year, while also setting a May deadline for US forces to leave. The Taliban used that as a recruitment call. We're months late on the original timeline, and they knew we were leaving last year. Of course the Taliban would surge in this timeframe. The question now is: is it worth to counter-surge to hold back the tide? It seems like the overwhelming opinion is that we should leave, so we're leaving.
    • rbanffy 5y ago
      The US failed to create the cultural change that would allow Afghanistan to be a westernised democracy. That’d take decades of building schools and hospitals and teaching every kid those western values until there is nobody who remembers the Taliban. Sadly, it looks like this was never the plan. At least, some people profited from weapon sales.
• bayesian_horse 5y ago
  You could argue Trump didn't have the wits, opportunity and time to do as much damage.
  • lukifer 5y ago
    The Bush administration did plenty of damage in the first two years. (Although by all accounts, he was largely rubber-stamping the initiatives of his VP and "advisers".)