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My point was that we could still maintain a regional presence without having personnel in Syria. They could respond if we has a reconstitution of ISIS in Syria.

When I was in Vietnam, we had a presence of over 500,000. We had a similar number of personnel in Europe when I was assigned to NATO. Totally irrelevant to our discussion as is the Civil War.

"My point was that we could still maintain a regional presence without having personnel in Syria. They could respond if we has a reconstitution of ISIS in Syria."

Most of the troops in Syria are artillery and their support. The rest as I understand are grunts and their support. The artillery personnel are there for direct support in our efforts with the Kurdish allies in their assaults on ISIS. The grunts are there for security and to also train them. Yes, the Kurds know how to fight really well, but they are being trained in how to fight in a join integrated military coalition with U.S. forces. This is so if we do have to come back, we can work together with them just as if we were working with NATO partners.