All of these are worthy of discussion. I’m heading out to a meeting but I promise I’ll respond at length when I am back at my desk later today.
1. Complete the destruction of ISIS by supporting our Kurdish allies in wiping out their last small stronghold around the Euphrates River.
First of all, this idea of "Kurdish allies" is fraught with all kinds of problems. The Kurds are an ethnic group spread across multiple sovereign nations -- one of which (Turkey) actually is an ally of the U.S. The Kurds, in fact, have been engaged in a decades-long insurgency within the borders of Turkey. How does a country like the U.S. possibly maintain an "alliance" under these conditions?
Secondly, ISIS only exists because the U.S. bungled the Iraqi invasion, occupation and half-assed "rebuilding" since 2003. Telling me that the U.S. must maintain a military presence in Syria to fix a problem that we created is a terrible argument to make.
2. Ensure that Iranian troops leave Syria.
What if the government of Syria wants them there? Is that OK?
3. Support our Kurdish allies by ensuring that Turkey pulls out of Northern Syria and leaves the Kurds alone.
See the first part of my answer to #1 above. The decision by the U.S. to treat a group operating outside any legitimate government structure as an "ally" was one of the dumbest decisions anyone in Washington could have made. The U.S. treating the Kurds as "allies" is like Mexico treating ethnic Mexicans in the U.S. as "allies" -- and acting accordingly. How's that working out for us?
Now, I get to ask you a question. Why does it bother you and others that we keep 2000 American troops in Syria to secure our National Interests? They are not in any immediate danger, they are not getting killed and they will only be pulling back to Kuwait or Iraq, not coming home.
A. The "national interests" you listed above aren't national interests at all. They sound more like Kurdish interests.
B. This apparently comes as a shock to a lot of people here on FreeRepublic, but some of us actually expect the U.S. to operate based on standards and principles. Syria is a sovereign nation, and the U.S. has no business occupying a sovereign nation this way. See Item (C) below.
C. Putting U.S. military personnel in foreign countries without a formal declaration of war by Congress is a violation of our founding principles, is a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution, and would have been considered utterly repulsive by the men who founded this country. Is there any reason beyond this that even needs to be discussed?
You can hold both beliefs you know. Secure our border and not pull out of Syria.
And yet you never hear about people who hold both beliefs -- at least not in Washington. The dopes who always pushed for these endless military campaigns -- like Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio -- were always the same dopes pushing for open borders. Did you ever ask yourself why?
I'll tell you why: None of these people think of the United States of America as a nation at all. To them, this "country" is nothing more than the home base of a global empire that has no borders, no national identity, and whose "government" is simply an administrative apparatus for this empire of theirs.
No thanks. I voted for Donald Trump because I'm sick of that sh!t. MAGA.