GOODBYE SYRIA

Can we really be withdrawing our forces from Syria?  Could anything so wise be happening?  It seems so.  President Trump, that tragically flawed messenger for sensible policy is pulling the plug on Obama's, or perhaps I should say, Hillary's pathetic adventure in Middle East warmongering.  So what has been achieved?

The Kurds have yet again been set up for failure in their quest for a state of their own. No surprise here, as they have always paid the price for association with us.  After all our bombing and blustering and advising, they still sit between Assad's Syria and Erdogan's Turkey.  Neither are disposed to make nice.  We have used the Kurds shamelessly for many decades and just as often washed our hands of them. We are their only hope for assistance so they make the same forlorn calculation over and over.

It's hard not to sympathize, but surely the question that must be asked is, why is their fate an American interest?  Do the Kurds offer us a means to defend an American interest? Wouldn't a free Kurdistan under our protection be another Israel; a permanent impediment to good relations in the region and beyond?