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There is absolutely nothing wrong with the goal of withdrawing from Syria, @bad_teamate, and you make some very good points in this thread. But, the "how" can make the "what" a poor course of action. I am sure you are familiar with terms like unintended consequences, out of the frying pan and into the fire and butterfly effect. Some things actually do need to be thought through before they are simply executed on. What I would have liked to have seen from a President wanting to withdraw from Syria is for them to task their Secretary of Defense with developing a plan within 21 days that accomplishes these three primary objectives: We are able to withdraw all US forces from Syria The Kurds and any other allies that we had pledged to support in the conflict are left in a strong enough position to survive in our absence True adversaries of the US, like ISIS, are not left in a position to regain strength after we leave The President should receive the plan, ask questions and possibly have the Secretary of Defense and his staff iterate on it a bit. When the President is satisfied that those three objectives were going to be met, give approval to execute. During that time, work on the political and diplomatic front. Inform congress and our allies in the coalition as to what we were doing, why and how. At that point, hold a press conference and inform the American people about our shift in Syrian strategy, giving all of us an understanding of what was happening, why and leaving us with a sense that this was a considered strategy worthy of our support. If we had a President who worked toward this perfectly fine goal in a sane manner as above, we would not be faced with: * Current and future allies, the ones we would need after another 9/11 event, wondering if an alliance with us means anything * Dealing with the resignation of our Secretary of Defense in a public display of no-confidence in the President for the first time in our history * Our military personnel being asked to put their lives on the line at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief who just had his fitness for command resoundingly called into question by his 2nd in command * Our military having to craft the plan to leave Syria under the duress of this leadership fiasco and with the resulting turnover at the top of their organization * Wondering if we are being led by a madman or a puppet of the Russian government Again, the goal is fine, but I do not believe getting out of Syria yesterday is worth the above. Worse yet, I think we could get out of Syria without having to suffer the above consequences if we had a President that was capable of diplomacy, nuanced leadership and thought beyond the first layer of a problem.

My brother just got out of the military 2 months ago after 9 years. I texted him yesterday about Mattis and this was his reply: ”When the presidents of Russia and Turkey support your decision and your Secretary of Defense doesn’t, that should mean something.”

Maybe he just read the Pepper Hamilton report.

No. We have a situation where one person, i.e. you, is absolutely wrong about absolutely everything regarding this topic. What is the root of your wanting to build a wall? I imagine it's that of the rest of the useless idiots who support it, which is to "keep illegals from crossing into our country." You are either too proud, too ignorant, or a combination of those factors not to notice the ghastly amounts of space in the holes of such logic: 1) Again, a gigantic proportion of illegal immigration is done via overstaying legally obtained visas by people who entered the country legally. A wall cannot stop that. 2) The conditions that we created in those Central American countries (and Mexico, mostly through the hideous effects of the Drug War, NAFTA, and other policies that we've undertaken) cannot be undone by the creation of such a wall, thus it will not mitigate the primary incentive they have to come here, which is to escape the hideous conditions that we've largely imposed on them. You do not support foreign policies that would mitigate said hideous conditions. You do not support the idea that we stop supporting thugs like Hernandez, and you do not support complying with the 1986 Nicaragua v. United States verdict, which specifically mandates "the United States of America is under an obligation to make reparation to the Republic of Nicaragua for all injury caused to Nicaragua by the breaches of obligations under customary international law enumerated above," much less do you support doing the same to those other countries which we violated so much worse that they feared the very idea of taking the matter to the ICJ the way Nicaragua did very bravely. 3) I've never seen you specifically deriding all the business owners/corporations who hire people they know are illegal and pay them dogshit wages for it. That is another incentive for them to come here, and I can't help but think the reason I see very few right wingers clamoring about this is because doing so comes into conflict with their dogmatic worship of their version of "capitalism," which in this case means that they would all admittedly have to go to greater expense to only hire citizens, which means they'd be obliged to comply with minimum wage laws and standards. It's quite true that these business owners do not love illegal immigration per se, but they definitely appreciate that they can cut expenditures as a result of it. There's a reason that produce growers in Georgia absolutely hated H.B. 87-it severely damaged their businesses. 4) I've never seen you specifically decry the Drug War for the abject fraud that it is, which also encourages the type of activity associated with the cartels. Our drug policy encourages the very existence of black markets both here and abroad (since we're the number 1 customer), and a wall can and will never stop them from delivering drugs to the other side. I'm sure you've already seen the videos where, in order to combat the Fence, drug smugglers simply built ramps to drive trucks over it and they also used those canons that mascots use at sporting events to shoot fucking t-shirts. Seriously, that's how "creative" they had to be to circumvent the Fence. Why do you think "the Wall" would yield that much of a different outcome? Are you really that comatose? 5) Of all the ills that face our society, this one is so low on the totem pole that to even fathom funding a symbolic and stupid $25 billion project to "cure it" requires a massive head injury. That's the common moral and intellectual failing of right-wingers like yourself: you don't think things through, and you bemoan societal ills (real or imagined), and then you blame them on absolutely everything except what's real. It's not about the fact that the Nixon Administration dismantled the Bretton Woods system and financialized the economy, it's not about the fact that Trickle Down Economics is a complete lie that relies on the power of pretend to believe in it, it's not about the fact that corporations are greedy by their very nature and that they buy politicians/elections in order to receive the exact favors that they want, and it's not about the horrific nature of our regressive tax system; to people like you, it has to do with blacks, gays, immigrants, atheists, liberals, environmentalists, feminists, the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the Illuminati, the York Rite and all that other shit. 6) There simply are no benefits to you or any of us from the construction and maintenance of the wall. Period. The only "benefits" people like you get rooted immediately back to your circular reasonings that support assumed conclusions, your feelings, your emotions, your sentiments, your petty angers, and your petty frustrations. Nothing about the wall objectively helps you or anyone else. Why else do you think Trump is behaving so childishly about shutting down the government over this at this very moment? It's really simple: the Democrats took back the House of Representatives, and he knows full well that he won't have the votes to get this pushed through after 1/20/2019. Since The Wall was THE cornerstone of his candidacy, and since his presidency has been an abject disaster (especially for the vast preponderance of people who voted for him), he has to be able to begin construction of this idiotic monstrosity in order to at least have something to run on in 2020. If he shows up in election season of 2020 without a wall, he shows up with nothing to show for at all, and will almost certainly be a 1-term president. He doesn't give a shit about you, he doesn't give a shit about me, he doesn't give a shit about anyone here, and he most certainly does not care about common working men and women. He only gives a shit about him and his immediate family, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you'll realize what a ridiculous conversation this really is. Those statements I just made are objectively verifiable facts, and I seriously cannot believe in 2018 that we're "debating" whether or not to build a fucking wall on our Southern border. This has to be a charade.

Now we know why Hamm was at the water park

I’m getting tired of people sucking off these shitheads just because they aren’t as bad as Bannon, Miller, Gorka, etc. Every fucking one of them should burn in hell for aiding and abetting dotard’s recklessness. Fuck all of them.

This is probably my favorite variation of "are you a coach?!" Oh, are you a psychologist? Have you diagnosed him with a mental health condition under the new guidelines contained in the DSM-5? I didn't think so. Checkmate.

ISIS forced their hand when they took over Mosul after the US withdrawal. The caliphate got into Kurdistan and was gaining territory quickly so peshmerga did what they do and fought. Some time after they started we realized that they were our best bet for defeating ISIS and we teamed up with them giving them money, arms and training. When Trump or Obama say "we defeated ISIS" they are full of shit. The Kurds defeated ISIS. Sure there were others that helped, but the Kurds did the heavy lifting especially in Mosul and Raqqa.

This is some of the most cowardly, disingenuous bullshit, and I can't fucking believe people STILL have this mindset. 1. This mystery "palatable" D candidate you're wishing for? It's actually a Republican. Your party has gone so far off the fucking deep end over the last 2-3 decades, that you're actually just wanting what you think a Republican should be. 2. I love that Republicans always recommend to liberals that they should nominate a "centrist", all the while they just fucking voted for the stupidest comic book villain ever as POTUS. 3. Calling Beto an "extremist" shows how clueless you really are. People on the left are already eating him alive for not being progressive enough. Pay attention, please.

Okay....but look what you just posted. You characterize him as an "extremist." The reasonably hard left/progressive movement thinks he's too centrist. I have a feeling that every single human who doesn't have an (R) next to his name is a "wacko leftist extremist" to you. There IS no such thing as an acceptable Dem to you. Thus, you will do just what I said -- "hold your nose"....and vote for Trump again.

I don't think that's how America is spelled.

The top marginal tax rate cuts and assorted other debt-funded wealth transfers from your grandchildren to the richest of today that you’ve spent your political life cheering for are the primary driver of this phenomenon.

Did he blind you with science?

Welcome to Texas coach. Know your fucking place

I wanted there to be a place about this meta-recruiting topic aside from the discussions of the players themselves. The guys I know more than zero about are: (1) Willie Lyles-- Sold recruits to Oregon under Chip Kelly, now officially rehabilitated by the NCAA and apparently helping Adidas sell them to SEC schools. (2) Ro Simon-- I know a lot less about him. Sounds like a middle man in the Lyles mold. (3) FWK aka Whitfield-- Has legitimate business training NFL RBs but seems to have picked up a sideline steering Houston area kids based on who makes it worth his while. Mainly A&M from what I see. Would love it if anyone has a list of his aggy connections (including both kids and boosters). The agent law Texas passed applies to agents of athletes that are NCAA-eligible, if I read it correctly. This may carve out a bit of soft spot in which these guys can operate on HS players.

The 2016 choice was between an unlikable politician and an unlikable con artist. It wasn’t a good choice but was not a hard one.

No it wasn't. The Dem had serious flaws but wasn't near the craptacular fool that Trump is. But nevertheless, if you put out a candidate like that, you deserve what you get. Where I am coming from is frankly not understanding the kind of idiocy that would label Beto O'Rourke as an unfit radical unworthy of a vote in comparison to Trump. It's just an objectively ludicrous position. You're miffed at Trump, a person who extols positions that appeal to racists, who favors policies that would destroy the environment, who is a danger to American security, yet Beto is a wacko. You're waver isn't worth shit unless you become active in the Republican Party to find an alternative or unless you stop swallowing the partisan crap.

Sorry, Vic.

He’ll play everywhere. It’s kinda aggy to harp on that the day of an all-time great performance by a future horn in a championship game.

This is nonsense. Riley was an active name on our board as a potential OC hire under strong. Even to the point there was a notion that his qb, Cordan <sp> could transfer here with him. He wasnt some yeti found in the great unknown regions by Bob Stoops, Tomb Raider. He was an exciting and known guy on many radars who Strong ignored for Watson. Just because you and Chuckles had no clue who riley was doesnt make Bob Stoops both Lewis and Clark.

I’ll one up you.... Texas: Do you think rape is bad? Hookfin: Yeah. Texas: Well, Baylor doesn’t.

He can slide down my half pipe.....or something.

As I type this, there is a graffiti artist in the playroom painting a mural on one of the walls.

i have a black friend so its okay for me to trash charlie strong

You bet.

you're thinking of ryan broyles. no manuel johnson, no mark clayton, no marquise brown, no sterling shepard, no dede westbrook, no jalen saunders, no juaquin iglesias, no malcolm kelly, no mark bradley. fuck me.

They are a people that once had a land. Mapmakers failed to recognize this and abstracted them out of independence and made them trespassers. What they do is resistance and survival. Their politics are complicated and should not be reduced to the simplism that terrorists are bad. Kurds do terroristic things. Kurds are bad. This is the trap of declaring a war on "terrorism." Terrorism is a subjective term that describes a violent means rather than the causes that employ it. We bomb civilians. Should we declare war on ourselves because that is arguably terrorism? Isn't Shock and Awe just a euphemism for terror-inducing? The Kurds ally themselves in different ways in different regions to exist. It's not simple. Don't reduce it to good guys and bad guys. They've been a splendid ally to us against ISIS. Any withdrawal we contemplate should consider their fate. I won't write that we must do so, because that word has no meaning in the cheap theater of American Foreign policy. It's all for the dimwitted audience at home. A fighter who died fighting ISIS:

She only controls the pussy if she knows where you're getting it from.

Sending American troops to Middle Eastern countries without Congressional authorization nor a clear exit strategy, something that #bothsides can agree on.

He's Lyles but instead of moms he loves feets.

Strange, I haven't heard any messages that say this, loud and clear or not. In fact, I've heard the exact opposite. This is not hard: Having a plan to get out of syria (or anywhere else for that matter) that includes consultation with military leaders and advisors and our allies, and prevents the Kurds from getting slaughtered by Turkey and prevents Russia from expanding its sphere of influence >>> staying in >>> DOTUS announcing by tweet with no plan or thought. The Kurds are about to get genocided because DOTUS is constipated. The Kurds are (or were) our allies. They fought alongside our troops, apparently very well. And you want to let them get slaughtered because why exactly?

shut it, faget

There is the policy to disentangle ourselves from some of our military engagements around the world. Then there is launching that policy via tweet without the counsel of our military leadership, without a plan to ensure that our sudden departure does not give rise to worse problems and without honoring the pledge of support made to an ally during an ongoing military conflict. You can have the former without the latter. You really can. But it requires something other than an id with a twitter account as President.

Mattis resigning is fighting.

I feel better now.

Brad McCoy should have his voicebox ripped out and fuck reviews in HS