Posted on Dec 20, 2018
How do you feel about the decision to pull American troops out of Syria?
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Office of the President (POTUS)
SECDEF
DoD
Syria
War on Terror
Posted 7 y ago
Responses: 43
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LTC John Shaw
ISIS and Sunni extremist will govern the same areas we are leaving. They are the leadership of the region. If NATO or the US is not in the Kurdish area, Turkey will use it as an opportunity to push the Kurds out of disputed area. I hope they don't go on the offensive in Kurdish territory, that will bring us right back.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
SGT Joseph Gunderson - The problem is we suck at nation building and this is a Region where the only successful governments are totalitarian. We have entered wars without an exist strategy, what do we really call a win in Iraq or Afghanistan? At what point do we take our winnings, the destruction of Al Queda and the Removal of Saddam, and call it a day. Is Assad really any worse than most of our so called Allies? Pakistan basically built the Taliban and the Saudi oil money financed Al Queda. Libya was not worse off under Qaddafi, whom the West shafted after he had complied with ridding his county of WMD's and was making overtures towards the West. To a degree, the same in Syria, our Ally during the first Gulf War. Even our support/intervention in the Balkans lead to a decade of civil wars and often our intervention was to the side with the best press agent.
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CPT Lawrence Cable
LTC John Shaw - The Kurds are remarkably agile at switching alliances when needed. My bet is they cut a deal with Assad in exchange for protection from the Turks. Assad gets a well trained Militia, the Kurds don't get massacred by the Turks.
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I'll take some heat for this, but when anyone in a leadership position won't heed the advice of his more respected subordinates, and relies on "gut instinct" and news cycles to keep things going you get this. Trump has said he wanted us out of the ME and I agree with it, but recent history shows how "Mission Accomplished" wasn't accomplished. How the Iraqi government told us to leave and we did, just to end up worse than we were before we left with ISIS running rampant across the board. When Obama was hellbent on pulling us out of the Stan, his advisors told him how much a mistake it would be, and he saw how it worked so good in Iraq, he left us in place.
An ego is the worst thing to have in a situation where your decision can have life or death consequences. Dictating policy through yes men many who never served a day in their lives isn't how you make things right, and we will see the effects of this decision beyond Mattis hauling ass. His resignation letter made a important note of thanking the US for allowing him to be their SECDEF. At no point in the letter did he thank Trump personally in comparison to Hailey's letter when she submitted it. That is telling how he feels without actually saying it.
Do I agree to pull us out? Yes. Is it the wise and prudent decision, hells naw. The mission was NOT accomplished, and the political standing and respect that Mattis brought to the position cannot be replicated. Powell won't take that job. We as a nation will pay dearly for this over time. Just like we did with Bush and Obama. I applaud Mattis integrity, honor, and duty to the troops. He was never politically minded, he just wanted and DEMANDED the best the services could offer. He gave the services the best he could in return. He took his lumps when demeaned in public and didn't reply to them. Fair winds and following Seas Crayon06
An ego is the worst thing to have in a situation where your decision can have life or death consequences. Dictating policy through yes men many who never served a day in their lives isn't how you make things right, and we will see the effects of this decision beyond Mattis hauling ass. His resignation letter made a important note of thanking the US for allowing him to be their SECDEF. At no point in the letter did he thank Trump personally in comparison to Hailey's letter when she submitted it. That is telling how he feels without actually saying it.
Do I agree to pull us out? Yes. Is it the wise and prudent decision, hells naw. The mission was NOT accomplished, and the political standing and respect that Mattis brought to the position cannot be replicated. Powell won't take that job. We as a nation will pay dearly for this over time. Just like we did with Bush and Obama. I applaud Mattis integrity, honor, and duty to the troops. He was never politically minded, he just wanted and DEMANDED the best the services could offer. He gave the services the best he could in return. He took his lumps when demeaned in public and didn't reply to them. Fair winds and following Seas Crayon06
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LCDR Bruce Sheppard
why do you assume it's ego talking and that the best solution won't be found because someone's not listening? haven't you figured out by now how the Prez does business? he just skips the part where you ask everyone what they think of your idea, he just says what he thinks he's going to do instead of waiting for everyone to chime in, which they do anyway after the fact. Gen Mattis had a lot going for him, but to claim he had to go because he was right and Trump was wrong is pure conjecture imho
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SGT Joseph Gunderson there must be more to this. We have troops stationed in 150 countries on 1,000+ bases around the globe. And Syria does it. We have bases throughout the ME, 2 carrier groups. And Syria did it. I’m missing something if pulling out of 1 country resulted in the resignation.
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LTC (Join to see)
CPT Michael Barden What good is a military alliance when the rest of the alliances have allowed their militaries to become combat inefficient? Is an alliance for the sake of having an alliance really a deterrence?
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CPT (Join to see)
I think the idea of leaving the Kurds out in the cold and the NATO forces we asked for to CM rubbed him the wrong way based on his letter. But I agree sir, it was probably a lot of things.
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LTC (Join to see)
SGT Joseph Gunderson by this logic we should still be in Germany with 4-5 Armored Divisions.
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SGT Joseph Gunderson
LTC (Join to see) We are still in Germany... Not in the same capacity but we had an occupational force for a period after the end of WWII and kept bases there up to the present. Addinitionally, the situation is different in many ways. Germany was able to install a western style government after the fall of the reich. Places all over the middle east are continually changing who is in power which causes a maddening level of instability nd fertile ground for these terrorist organizations to fester and grow support.
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It's my understanding that Congress never authorized us to be in Syria, and I think the War Powers act is supposed to be limited to 90 days. Or at least it used to be, IIRC. I think if the people in Congress think withdrawing from Syria is the wrong thing to do, they can vote to keep us there.
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CPO (Join to see)
The authorization was the essentially blanket authorization against terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11, the usage of which drew criticism from some members of Congress, but there has been no serious action to limit the deployment of US forces. Congress does have the power to declare war, but in practice, the deployment and troops lies with the executive branch. Congress can declare war, and authorize funds, but the executive branch, through the DOD follows through.
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SGT (Join to see)
CPO (Join to see) - right? The AUMF is really all the congressional authorization required. Not to mention, Congress has voted to fund the Syrian conflict.
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The people that make these decisions have access to information that I don't. So I keep my mouth shut until enough is revealed to determine whether it was a good or bad decision. Then NO MATTER WHAT happens, I say "see... I told you so."
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CSM Charles Hayden Passed 7/29/2025
Maj John Bell How can you say, “So I keep my mouth shut - -“; how can you claim to; say, “see.... I told you so”?
Confusion is easy for me!
Confusion is easy for me!
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Honestly, I don’t think about anything strategic. I love to hear about troops coming home always. I’m sure all of us do. I wish they would get the hell out of Afghanistan and Iraq also.
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All for it. In my junior opinion we never should have intervened in Syria in the first place.
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MSG Frederick Otero
Syria's started something they could not finished on the assumption that the rest of the world would pull their fat out of the fire. Hated to see the terrible results for the people of Syria.
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SSgt (Join to see)
A civil war we shouldn't have gotten involved in. Let Assad keep power, we know where he stands and we know he isn't foolish enough to tey anything against the US. These rebel groups that were trained, supplied amongst other things, we don't know what their true intentions are. Let the country tear itself apart.
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We look weak withdrawing. Just days after Erdogan announced Turkey will go after US backed Kurds in Syria, President Trump announces we are pulling out. In another 10 yrs we’ll be there burying our young service members.
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MSG Frederick Otero
With this C&C it could all change in a tweet. Hell he may change his mind and nuke the place, wouldn't surprise me.
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PFC John Lanni
Trump made it very clear to Turkey that it was hands off the Kurds. I don't need to discuss The firepower we have in the region here, we are all very aware of our capabilities. I refuse to believe that boots in this instance will make or break any decision of retaliation by Turkey. If Mattis resigned over pulling out of what has turned out to be an illegal action as of now, show him the door. Mattis can be replaced, anyone that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. It would take about 10 seconds.
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It is a fine balancing act. If you withdraw too soon it could have negative consequences. Obama pulled out of Iraq too fast and look at what happened. It should be done over time and gradually.
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