Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

It has occurred to me that Trump could not have been talking about nuking Afghanistan. How could he nuke it when there are 14,000 American troops there, and according to this report, over 2 and 1/2 times as many private military contractors.

https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-how-many-private-contractors-and-us-troops-are-in-afghanistan-2017-8

 Then, there are the troops of other NATO countries who are still there, and there are the Afghans who are working with us. The radiation from nuclear bombs would affect everybody. 

There are the so-called tactical nuclear weapons to be used in battle, but Trump spoke of killing 10 million Afghans in a week. So, what was he referring to? Was it the "mother of all bombs" which has been used once in Afghanistan? That must be what he meant.

But, it's interesting that damage control has set in since Trump made his incendiary remarks. That was on Monday, and on Thursday, Bloomberg published an article which has gone viral. It's been picked up by everybody. It claims the Taliban says that a peace deal with the U.S. is now near.  It's based entirely on a phone call with Mohammad Suhail Shaheen who works at the Taliban office on Doha, Qatar. But, there is nothing about it on the Taliban website. There, it's all about the ongoing fighting and the number of people they have killed in various battles and engagements. 

It's just incredible to me how homogenized and in lock-step the US and Western media are. Somebody from Bloomberg calls the Taliban office in Quatar and gets some guy to make a positive statement,  and then it disseminates everywhere. It was just a guy on the phone speaking extemporaneously. 

https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/taliban-says-deal-on-us-troop-pullout-from-afghanistan-is/article_74e5192f-e30d-5471-8891-3ddd45933d71.html

The point is that they went fishing for that. They wanted to reassure the world that Trump's highly bombastic and terribly ill-advised remarks haven't torpedoed the peace process. So, they got this guy to say something hopeful over the phone. 

 But, the point is that the Taliban's response to Trump on their website and on Twitter has been defiant, and they continue to report fierce fighting, and there really isn't anything behind this. It's just a little lip-flapping by one guy. It's nothing bankable. 

Then, Pompeo and Afghan President Ghani made a joint statement that "now is the time to accelerate efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to the war." But, the Taliban doesn't negotiate with Ghani. So, what's the point of the statement? The point is: damage control because the Idiot in the White House is a blabbermouth. He can't control his utterances. I really think Trump has got some dementia going on, and it is only going to get worse.