General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What is everyone's position on keeping troops in Syria? [View all]Tom Rinaldo
(23,187 posts)i favored drawing down our troop levels in Syria. We did. in a world in which nations have military forces, there were better reasons for the U.S deploying a small number of troops in Syria than there are for almost any active use of forces. ISIS still has large numbers of combatants in Syria. Civil order was being restored in areas where U.S. troops were stationed in support of Kurdish elements allied to us who did most of the fighting against ISIS which greatly helped us fight terrorists who wanted to strike America. This was the smart way to face a lethal threat, not a U.S. invasion involving over 100,000 soldiers like Bush did with Iraq.
2,200 troops is a small footprint, and the trend line was for continued withdrawals over time. That made sense. Yanking them all out suddenly does not.