Why the withdrawal from Syria is the right move and should be cheered...

via Fox News.

Our militaries obliterated a jihadist force that sprung out of the vacuum of the Syrian civil war and once grew so large as to approach the outskirts of Baghdad in neighboring Iraq.

President Trump’s choice of retired Marine Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense was pivotal. Mattis freed U.S. forces who had been fighting with one arm tied behind their backs, and contributed to major battlefield gains without a massive invasion.

Of course, ISIS stragglers still exist. Remember that Japanese holdouts were still coming out of the jungle to surrender long after World War II ended? But ISIS is kaput as an organized military and governing force in Syria and Iraq.

Now it is time to bring our military home. President Trump correctly tweeted: “We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency.”

Of course, hawks will be upset. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the Senate’s leading interventionist, tweeted: “Withdrawal of this small American force in Syria would be a huge Obama-like mistake.”

Story here.

This is an excellent article.  I hope you read it all before commenting.

Main points for the individuals that won't....

**  ISIS stragglers will exist.  Germans and Japanese after WW2 are the most famous examples but the same applied to the US Civil War, the Vietnam War and other conflicts.

**  Nation building is a fool's game that the US should NEVER ATTEMPT AGAIN!

**  Training of forces in the area is also foolish.  We've been training the Iraqis, Afghans and others for decades with little to show for it.  The American way of war just doesn't translate to many other countries.

**  Hawks will never be satisfied.  It seems that want a signing on a battleship type victory that will never happen in these types of wars.

**  Stablization is also a fools errand.  Assad is protected and will only be removed by negotiation, not force of arms.  Even if that happened Jan 1, 2019 there would still be fighting in that country.

Finally the author of this piece stated that while the Military Industrial Complex, both parties, the news media and the deep state long for familiar enemies....wait...let's dig out the exact quote...

 As for President Trump, he has now placed in the history books a clear alternative to the neoconservatives’ incompetent never-ending war, as demonstrated in Afghanistan and Iraq. He knows that when we deploy our military we should accomplish a clear goal with strong force and then get out.

Perhaps the most important achievement in President’s Trump’s withdrawal will be the least heralded. By slowly moving away from fighting in backwaters stretching from Afghanistan to Libya, he can refocus more of our military power on America’s chief threat in the world: China.

While the massive national security complex in Washington longs for confrontation against familiar Middle Eastern foes and Russia, Trump, like the public, knows instinctively that our biggest challenge lies across the Pacific.

Well said.

Very well said!