I'll be totally honest...I am more than a little bit conflicted on this because on the one hand, it is indeed high time we got the Hell out of the Middle East, because nothing we have done has accomplished much other than hurting ISIS or delivering brutal dictators to their end, but in the aftermath what we allowed to happen afterward might have even been worse for the societies involved.
On the other hand, we are leaving at the worst possible time. This is absolutely a big gift wrapped present to Erdogan and Putin both, and we are rewarding the Kurdish people with a kick in the teeth after they helped us countless times. And giving Syria to Vladimir Putin is inexcusable.
And I cannot put away my suspicions that this is something Trump is doing to curry favor with the Putin regime, otherwise he would have zero motivation to do it.
Add to that the fact that almost the ENTIRE State and Defense community is slack jawed with horror at the move, and so are many of our allies in the outside world. Those are big red flags. Something isn't passing the smell test for them, so it's not passing the smell test for me either.
And bear in mind, it's not just people on the Left, it's almost universal on both sides of the spectrum.
Mattis is a hardcore conservative. As a liberal, I am supposed to hate him, right?
Surprise, I might not agree with some of his values but as a military man I have always respected him very much.
Mad Dog Mattis is the kind of guy you can rely on, or at least he always used to be.
So when Mad Dog isn't happy, nobody should be. The guy is a bonafide war hero, a standup man in uniform.