Fifty troops is too many to lose and not enough to win anything without massive escalation. I am not a military expert.
Exactly...Anyway, that was the number I heard being bandied about by the President...As to us having any other troops in Syria...I do not know.
The Middle East has a long history of trying to kill each other. This is the past, the present and the future. Actually you can blame the Brits for this. As the British Empire collapsed after WWII they drew up nation boundaries that did not reflect religion nor ethnic regions. The Brits set the table for unrest in the Middle East and Africa post WWII.
Unless we have a strategic reason of self interest for our nation we should not be there. There are regions in the Middle East that we do have strategic reasons for our presence and they are few. Let them get on with killing each other and not sacrifice one drop of American blood least it be an area that is vital to our strategic interests both militarily and economic.
If an area in the Middle East becomes an extensional threat to our nation simply kill them from the air. Kill them with extreme prejudice. Take out their air defenses and carpet bomb them with B52s. Do not rebuild them but let them suffer the consequences of their stupidity. This stupidity will be followed by disease, hunger, death and misery. Repeat as necessary.
This is the Russian way, but we are much better at it, if we so decide to do so.
No American blood should be shed unless it is in our strategic interests.