Why?  I’ve thought about this topic a lot over the past week. I don’t understand how this isn’t the right move. ISIS is defeated. They don’t hold any territory or have any influence. As Assad sent his Army to defend the Kurds against Turkish aggression, and the Turks seem interested if not in controlling the territory, disarming it, ISIS isn’t going to be gaining a stronghold there. We’re deploying troops to Iraq that can respond if ISIS were to try to regroup around Mosul.

The goal of defeating ISIS is accomplished. We’ve already turned Iraq back over to its government, and regime change was never policy in Syria.

This begs the question of should Turkey be in NATO and should we house 50 nukes there. Fair questions,  but it’s Trump who’s been leaning in that direction, not Democrats. Democrats were against strikes and action in Syria. Ending our active engagements there isn’t something they can be upset about. And Trump campaigned on quick strikes and avoiding occupations. The whole “Don’t tell them what we’re gonna do before we do it” logic that was mocked by Clinton supporters.

Russia cements its foothold in Syria. Ok?  Are we trying to start an armed conflict with Russia or aren’t we?  I know more about force projection than most. Our fleets in the Mediterranean and Arab peninsula combined with bases in the Persian Gulf are ample deterrence for fuckery in the region. But Russia being allied with Assad is the status quo, so what’s changing here?

At what point were we going to leave. I understand the optics of “abandoning” the Kurds, but I’ll ask again, when was the right time to go?  Is it going to be the policy of the US to support the creation of Kurdistan?  And how much money and troops are we spending to achieve this?

Instead of doing Iraq or Korea 2.0, we got out after ISIS was handled. I don’t support a humanitarian mission to imprison thousands of nationless jihadis.

I’m still trying to figure out who’s offended by this politically. Democrats didn’t want a war, and Republicans wanted to slaughter ISIS. The Neo-con foreign policy agenda finally died with Bolton.